The Quest For Zatara
by dreamweavers
Summary: An epic tale of Zatanna's quest to find her father.
1. Fade To Black And White

Disclaimer: All the characters in this story are copyright DC Comics.

Authors' Note: This story is being written for the DC2 Universe site, and being reposted here. It's set in the continuity of the DC2 Universe, but hopefully we've done enough recapping so that it should make sense on its own. If anything's unclear, please feel free to ask.

**_The Quest For Zatara_**

**_Chapter One - Fade To Black... And White_**

Zatanna Zatara apparated into her living room apartment, yanked off her hat, and flung it onto a nearby chair. She stood there with a rage building up inside of her. She closed her eyes, fighting the fire that boiled in her blood. Then she screamed in frustration, her arms stretching out in front of her as a burst of magic, burgundy in color, exploded from her hands, shattering her two mirrors and a table lamp next to her.

She staggered back and fell onto the couch, shaking; why, she couldn't be sure. Nothing was the same anymore. Ever since she had been held for a year, her entire life had turned upside down. She had found out that her captor was actually her half-sister Tamara, a sorceress that she shared the same father with. Her "sister" had imprisoned her, siphoning her energy to make herself more powerful. With the help of her familiar, Basil, she had turned the tables and gotten away, and used the same trick – siphoning Tamara's powers into herself, to help defeat her half-sister. The problem was that the unnatural and very dark magic had not left her. It had clung to her like static cling.

"thgiN sehtolc," she muttered and her costume was instantly turned into a large night-shirt that carried the symbol of Superman on it. Zatanna turned on her television and fell back into the softness of her couch as the black and white image of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope came onto the screen. They were singing and dancing as they trekked across the desert.

"Where are you, Father?" she asked herself in frustration as she lay down on the couch, exhausted. Tears began to creep down her face. During the last crisis, she had run into Tamara again, while she and Batgirl were trying to stop the Bizzaro soldiers at Cadmus. Her sister had shown her an image of her father, still alive, being held prisoner somewhere.

Yet every time Zee searched for her, there was no trace… none whatsoever. It was as if she was just blinking out of existence. But she wasn't going to give up; she couldn't. Her father was in danger, in trouble, and if it took her till the end of time, she would find him. She just needed to rest first.

As her lids began to droop, she listened to the wisecracking Hope as Crosby played straight man to his buddy. Life had to have been so much simpler back then, she thought, before she drifted off…

As she fell asleep, a pair of eyes appeared in her apartment. They blinked as they watched her falling deeper and deeper into a restful slumber. That peacefulness, the person on the other end decided, was about to change…

* * *

Almost ten hours later, Zatanna was awoken by the sound of piano music. Her eyes still half-closed, she lifted herself from the couch and, giving the gray sky outside a cursory glance, switched off the television set and headed for the bathroom. For a second she considered saying a few words to halt the sound of the piano, wherever it was, but, slightly amused that the music appeared to be keeping time with her actions, she decided to let it continue. Maybe it was a good omen. Maybe today was the day she'd finally make a breakthrough in the search for her father.

With these happy thoughts, she marched into the bathroom completely failing to spot the banana peel lying on the floor in front of her. Unfortunately, although her eye managed to miss this object, her foot didn't, and a split-second later she was in mid-air, but, despite the Superman symbol on her night dress, she couldn't defy gravity for long, and she fell flat on to the ground as the unseen phantom pianist slammed their fingers down on the keys.

No longer amused by the piano playing, Zee decided it was time to stop the music, and opened her mouth to say her backwards spell, only to wonder why the words didn't come out.

Suddenly, her confusion was increased a hundredfold by a large black rectangular caption that suddenly appeared in front of her. From the back she could read the white words engraved on the front: "Stop the music!"

Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the caption disappeared again.

Zatanna stood there shaking her head, in time to the music, as she began to piece together what had happened. Before she'd gone to sleep she'd been watching Bob and Bing, thinking how life had been easier then.

"Not again!" said the caption that now appeared in front of her, as Zatanna, failing to notice that, from the back, this caption appeared to be in mirror-writing, remembered the last time she'd made the mistake of talking backwards in her sleep. That time, so long ago, she'd woken up with New Kids on The Block sitting on the end of her bed, but this time round it looked like she'd wished that she was in a movie. Last time, after getting their autographs, she'd solved things with a bit of mystical backchat, but this time she couldn't even say her spells.

"Oh, fiddlesticks!" said the caption, just after Zee had looked in the mirror to see a monochrome version of herself staring back at her.

_Why do things have to be so complicated?_ thought Zee, as she ran out of the bathroom, being careful to check for any banana peels in her way, and then went through the chore of dressing that her spells usually saved her from. _Why can't things just be black and wh-... No, it was probably thoughts like that that got me here in the first place._

Zee suddenly found herself shaking her fist in frustration and then jumping up and down on her hat. As she suddenly realized what she was doing, succumbing to her movie surroundings, the tragedy of things hit her. Maybe she'd never be able to say her spells again; never be able to find her father. She pulled a handkerchief out of her tuxedo, and put it to her eyes, sobbing melodramatically.

_Pull yourself together, Zee,_ she told herself, although without opening her mouth, because the black captions appearing out of nowhere were starting to spook her out.

She wandered to the bathroom, to clean up her face, and remove the mascara that her tears had stained, but then, looking down from the mirror, she noticed a device lying on the floor. She recognized the device from the films of old magicians her father had made her watch, and started to say something as it emitted a puff of gray smoke that filled the room.

"Great, smoke and mirr-" said the caption, and then the caption disappeared, and so, for that matter, did Zatanna.

* * *

When the smoke cleared Zatanna found herself staring up at the gray sky. She hadn't realized how much she disliked that color until now. When she attempted to get up, she realized, with an over-exaggerated expression of surprise, that she was bound from neck to ankles by rope that had been wrapped tightly around her. She looked around frantically to find that not only was she trussed up, but she was lying across a set of railroad tracks in the middle of a city… a city with a large billboard that read **Welcome to Keystone City**

She shouted out in shock and wasn't surprised, so much as irritated, to see the words come up next to her. However, the phrase, "Oh no!" once again read "!on hO" from her point of view. The piano music was still playing in the background and still keeping time with her movements and mood. She decided at that moment that when she freed herself, the first thing she was going to do was find that piano player and slam his fingers in the keyboard.

Then the music changed its tone, and became dark and sinister sounding. She looked around frantically and suddenly found herself staring up at the well-dressed figure of Abra Kadabra. He was looking down at her, a huge handlebar mustache covering his face. He was obviously laughing and the caption confirmed that with a simple "Ha, ha, ha."

What was _he_ doing here? Was he even _really_ here at all? And since her mind was racing (the music racing right along with her), where exactly was it that she really was in the first place.

She looked up at Kadabra and, although she could not hear the words, she knew she had asked him why he was doing this. When the caption scrolled it out, she decided that, after the piano player, whoever was doing the writing was next on her list to get booted.

Kadabra laughed again and actually twirled the end of his mustache with his hand. He spoke to her and she looked quickly at the captioning that read, ".nac I esuaceB" Then it disappeared quickly. Zee became frustrated; she hadn't had time to read it. In fact, the idea of having to read all of these words backwards was getting ridiculous and bothersome.

The evil villain turned, as if he had heard a sound, his hand cupping around his ear in exaggeration. Zatanna caught a glimpse of a caption that she believed had read _A train whistle approaching_, but it disappeared before she could finish deciphering it. Talking backwards was one thing, but _come on!_ who in their right mind wanted to read backwards!

She looked down the track and saw the front of the train engine coming towards her. She looked up to see Abra Kadabra rubbing his hands together in glee as he swirled his cape and began to do some kind of bizarre happy dance. She rolled her eyes as she continued to work herself out of the ropes. Escaping from these sorts of situations was one of the first things her father had taught her, in case she wasn't able to use her hands for any kind of spells.

Kadabra stopped, his eyes widening in what appeared to be shock as he turned behind him. Zee looked down quickly and saw the caption "Curses, it's the cops!" She was actually pleased with herself. She got through the whole thing before it disappeared.

Then, as the music turned from heavy melodrama to some sort of tune that would best be described as something out of a Looney Tunes cartoon, three very old-fashioned police cars came screeching to a halt in front of them.

Officers, all dressed in very old-fashioned clothes, with billy clubs drawn, were stumbling out of the cars, several of them fell face first onto the ground while the others tripped over them while trying to get to Kadabra, who had jumped up into the air in surprise and terror, and began to run around the cars.

The Keystone Cops chased after him, all in one single file line, and all running the same circle around the police cars. They held on to their sticks with one hand and held onto their hats with the other.

Zee looked back at the train that was barreling down towards her; the tempo of the music increasing. She had almost escaped, but realized also that she had run out of time. She could actually see the train engineer's exaggerated face as he looked at her in horror, unable to stop in time.

She took a deep breath and rolled her body down the track and lifted the bottom part of her body, flipping herself off the track just as the train whizzed past her. Quick thinking on her part as she had realized once, sitting with her parents, why the villain always tied them up, but rarely actually tied them _to_ the tracks.

Zatanna finally released herself from her bonds as the last of the train shot by. She caught a glimpse of Kadabra running away; waving his fist in the air, with several of the cops falling all over each other to go after him.

She couldn't help but grin as she began to walk away. Then her mind went back to the matter at hand, and she wondered just how far reaching this spell of hers had gone…

* * *

It had only been a few hours since a young woman had said some backward words, casting her spell, but now the ripples of that spell were being felt far and wide throughout the newly monochrome landscape. 

In Coast City, Gray Lantern watched in amusement as the villain Sonar now only had captions to fight him with, whereas in Central City the Flash was rushed off his feet helping with the sudden outbreak of baby carriages falling down steps. Meanwhile, over in Ivy Town, Chronos watched as a miniature hero dangled from one of his clock faces.

Elsewhere, in a futuristic city, a busy newspaper reporter struggled to document the drastic changes that had taken place, wondering whether the normal sunlight, along with his powers, would ever return. Now was not the time to think about such things though. Now he was just one of the workers, not one of the thinkers, and so he went back to his work, every so often looking up at the tall building ahead of him, one that he used to be able to clear with but a single bound.

High in that building, Lex Luthor had turned his attention away from firing rockets at the Man in the Moon, and was now working on a robot woman, modeled after an inhabitant of Smallville, who he'd designed to take control of the city. Soon this would be Lana Lang's Metropolis.

As with the rest of the world, a hush was over Gotham City. Still, the gallant caped crusader didn't have any need for words, as his fists flew into his opponents, while the black and white captions alongside him provided the sound effects. Suddenly those captions changed however, as the Man Who Laughs looked up with a wide smile, and the captions were suddenly filled with his laughter, and as his laughter got faster the captions kept coming, quicker and quicker, until they could no longer keep up with him and then suddenly the silence of Gotham was shattered as the air was filled with his laughter. Hearing the gasps of those around him, and the sound of nearby vehicles, the painted clown, realizing what he'd done, looked out at the world and smiled.

"You ain't heard nothing yet."

* * *

Zatanna was getting more and more frustrated as she walked along the deserted road. Not only had she not seen any cars, but she wasn't sure where exactly it was that she should go at this point. The only two things she did know for certain were that she wanted to get as far away from Keystone City as possible, and that if that damn piano didn't stop playing soon, she was going to go stark raving crazy. 

_Note to self_, she thought. _When I get out of this, find Yanni and turn him into a toad!_ It was petty, sure, but it was going to make her feel a lot better.

She was getting hungry. No, more than hungry; she was practically starving. She wished that she had brought money along when she had cast the spell, but then again, would her money be good where she was.

The piano music began to play a melancholy song as she continued her walk down the deserted road. There had to be a way out of this, but, if she couldn't speak, she couldn't eliminate the spell she had set in motion. The more she thought about it, the more frustrated she became.

That's when she began to feel it: the _other_ magic. The part of her that she had taken from her sister and for some reason had held onto. It was building inside of her again, as her anger and frustration grew. It was a magic, she was realizing, that reached across endless points in space and time, and it dawned on her that perhaps she didn't need to use words after all. She never had to before when using the darker magic.

She closed her eyes and focused, letting it build inside of her as she let the anger grow, and then, as she had done before, she released it all at once, with a mental image of being home again.

When she opened her eyes, she found the world around her was still in black, white, and shades of gray. The end result was not what she had expected at all. In fact, when she had released the power inside of her, it seemed to have petered out as it was released, like a firework that barely sparks and then plummets to the ground.

She let out a cry of frustration as she grabbed her hat and threw it to the ground. The silent scream came across in front of her in words, and she kicked at it, shattering it. Then she fell down next to her hat, lying upside down in the grass, and heaved a silent sigh. Was she going to be stuck here forever, she wondered?

"You're looking awfully sad, my lady," Basil said as he popped out from her hat and sat down next to her, staring up at his master.

"Oh, Basil, I have no idea what's going on anymore. I think I cast a spell in my sleep and now I'm stuck in this stupid silent movie, and without my voice I don't think… think… Did you just speak to me?" She looked up in shock. "Hold on! Did I just talk?"

"I would have to answer yes to both of those questions," Basil replied absently as he scratched behind his ear.

"How?! Why?!"

"Why are you asking me?" the white rabbit replied. "I'm not the magician; I'm just the faithful familiar, here at your beck and call."

Zee's mind started racing with excitement. She jumped up and began to pace back and forth. "Everything is still in black and white, so I'm obviously still stuck in this movie motif, but perhaps we've moved on. We've finally hit the talkies! That's a start, anyway."

She began to twirl around in happiness. She felt the sudden urge to break out into a dance, but stopped short of actually following through. She looked down at Basil who was staring back at her, his nose twitching in what she thought was some kind of mocking humor.

"This spell is starting to get to me. Alright, let's get out of here. I've had enough of this place."

She grabbed her hat, set it upon her head tightly and picked up her faithful companion. She once again closed her eyes and, moving the fingers in her free hand, muttered the words backwards that she would need to release herself.

She grinned as she opened her eyes, fully expecting to find herself lying on the couch again. Her smiled dropped as she realized everything was still the same. Life was still black and white.

"Anytime now," Basil said, looking up at her.

"Oh dear," Zee muttered.

* * *

Far away, Zatanna's progress was being watched by another pair of eyes. Those eyes belonged to her half-sister Tamara, who was finding the monochrome scene before her highly amusing. 

"This is one terrific movie, semi-sis," she said, towards the unhearing Zatanna on the screen before her. "Shame you can't enjoy it. Still, I loved that bit where you were walking down that road, all destitute and starving. I thought you were going to end up having to eat your hat, just like the little tramp you are - think of all the rabbity goodness that top hat must contain - but then the talkies arrived and spoiled everything. Still what a great punchline - you thought that this movie spell was your doing all along. That's priceless! The sheer temerity of you thinking you could pull off something like this."

Tamara leaned in closer to her screen to the otherworld, her face mimicking Zatanna's as the truth dawned on Zee, and then Tamara burst out laughing.

"All this time you've been stuck with a day that's gray and lonely, and it's only just now you're thinking about Tamara?" said Tamara in disbelief. "Tamara, your big sis who held you captive all that time, playing with you, just like I'm playing with you now. All this time you've been trying to find me, and I finally decided to get in touch. You should be glad; before this is all over, you'll get to meet me, and this conversation won't be one way anymore. I just hope you've got some good last words."

And with that, Tamara lay back in her red velvet chair, grabbed a handful of popcorn, and continued to enjoy the show.

* * *

Zatanna looked around at the black, white, and gray that her life had become, from a spell that she no longer had control over. She fought down the rising anger that seemed to spawn so quickly inside of her these days, and took a deep breath. 

Could she even cast any spells, she wondered. "eriF raeppa ni ym dnah," she commanded out loud as she opened her hand, palm up. A simple spell, one of the first that her father had taught her. Her father…

The fire fluttered in her hand and then without warning shot up high, blue and red flame nearly engulfing her face. She felt the heat against her face and heard the sizzle of her eyebrows singeing as the flame grew further out of control.

She let out a scream, tossing the fire away from her, narrowly missing Basil who jumped out of the way at the last second.

"Not sure what I ever did to you, but it's no reason to go all Glenn Close on me," the rabbit mumbled, giving here as much of a look of anger as a lagomorph could muster.

"Basil, I'm so sorry," she said as she was stamping out the fire that had landed on the ground. "I was in control of it for a second, then it suddenly just took off on its own."

"It's okay, I suppose," Basil replied. "In the end, you seemed to have received the worst of it."

"What do you mean?"

"You've burned off your own eyebrows."

"WHAT?! Oh no, I must look horrible. sworbeyE worg kcab," she commanded.

She felt the magic again, and again she felt it go out of her control as the eyebrows continued to grow about three inches thick. They were so thick, in fact, that she could actually see the bottom of them by rolling her eyes up.

"Yes, that's much better," Basil said. "Give yourself a cigar and glasses and we can spend a day at the races."

Zatanna sat down, fighting back a combination of rage and tears. "Why is this happening? What is going on?"

"Don't look downhearted," said Basil, looking at Zee sitting at the side of the road. "At least I can tell you what I know now."

"Guess it can't hurt to follow the white rabbit," Zee mused.

"I hope that's an Alice in Wonderland reference rather than a Matrix one," said Basil, his ears twitching. "This world's not ready for that... yet."

"The what?" Zatanna asked in confusion.

"The Matrix. Oh, never mind, I tend to have a lot more time on my paws than you do. Anyway, we need a lift for where we're going."

"And that would be?"

"Las Vegas. If we're going to find your father, there's an old acquaintance of his that could help us."

He said nothing else as he hopped to the edge of the road and stuck out his carrot, waiting patiently.

While Basil used his carrot to try and thumb a lift, Zee just smiled. "Haven't you seen It Happened One Night?"

"No, and you haven't seen the Matrix."

As Zee stood by the side of the road, she flashed her fishnetted leg and a car screeched to a halt by her.

"Couldn't you have just used magic?" asked the rabbit.

"Not a good idea at this point. Not until I know a little bit more about why I'm losing control of it. Now let's go before this driver changes his mind."

* * *

"So, where are you heading, lady?" asked the driver, as Zatanna climbed into his passenger seat. 

"The rabbit and I are going to Vegas," she said. "Don't suppose you're heading that way?"

"That's no problem," said the driver. "Can't be worse there than any of the other places I've seen today."

Zatanna's heart sank. "So, this thing's pretty widespread, then?"

"Everywhere I've been, I've seen it," said the driver. "Now I get around a lot; started off in Boston and since then I've been all over the place, and I honestly thought I'd seen everything there was to see... until today. Turns out, I'd barely scratched the surface."

The driver fell silent and turned his attention to the road.

"You can't just leave it at that," yelled the rabbit, behind him."Besides, how could you have got anywhere in this jalopy, at this speed?"

The driver turned and looked at the rabbit. "You really want to know?"

"Hey, Mac, keep your eyes on the road," screamed the rabbit. "You'll get us both killed."

The driver laughed and turned his attention back to the road. "This is just my latest _vehicle_. Fifteen minutes ago, I was in Metropolis, watching as a storm raged in the sky, and a bolt of lightning descended from the skies, hitting LexCorp tower, giving power to the machines that Lex Luthor was using in his latest experiment. _It's alive!_ Lex shouted as he watched the large white figure lying on his table sitting bolt upright."

"Bizarro?" whispered Zatanna, remembering the lives she'd stolen with a gesture mere months earlier.

"No, Solomon Grundy," continued the driver, "not that it really matters. Then there was ten minutes ago and that cave in Gotham City, where a dark figure wrapped his cape around himself and kept muttering about the children of the night, while his manservant just looked at his master with a degree of worry, before going back to nibbling a cockroach. That's not to mention New York, where Wonder Woman faced a woman who witnesses claimed had been transformed into a cheetah following the full moon. I tell you, lady, the horror's universal."

The driver turned to his passenger, and noticed that she was no longer there, and neither was the rabbit that had previously inhabited the backseat.

"Oh, I get it. You've gone all Claude Rains on me. Figures. And there was me thinking that I was the Invisible Man."

Boston Brand shrugged the shoulders of the body he inhabited, and continued with his driving.

* * *

Meanwhile, Zee, was now far, far away. Having heard the start of the driver's story, she'd realized that, even if her magic was malfunctioning, time was now of the essence, and so she'd whispered a spell to transport herself and Basil to Vegas. Therefore she was slightly surprised to find herself sitting on a moon. 

Admittedly, it was a flat silver cut-out moon, and down below her she saw the brightly-lit streets of Las Vegas, along with lots of dancers in perfect formation spelling out her name. For a second, she forgot her problems, and just let the living Busby Berkeley musical that was going on around her envelop her. As the moon descended to the ground, she saw all of the dancers more closely, each of the women wearing a sparkling copy of her magician's outfit. Indeed, her own outfit now seemed to shine like never before, and she noticed, with some relief, that her eyebrows had now returned to their normal thickness again.

As Zee, for the first time in a long while, began to enjoy herself, she looked over at some girls dressed in bunny outfits, all of them standing around the edge of a giant top hat containing a fountain.

Over at the giant top hat, Basil looked with worry at the smile now on his mistress's face. _Good grief_, he thought, as he stood there patiently behind some women, awaiting his turn to dive in.

* * *

_The calendar on the wall said January, but it was hotter than a volcano in June. I drew the blinds, and sat in my chair, listening to the sound of my sweat slowly pouring down my trench coat and then bouncing off the wooden floor. As my body started to melt, I knew it couldn't possibly get any hotter, but then I realized I was wrong... the moment she walked in._

_I recognized the dame immediately - the fishnets, the top hat, the kind of curves they never teach in geometry. Her name was Zatanna and her trade was deception and misdirection. She was trouble with a capital Zee, but at that moment I just didn't care. _

"_O'Brien?" she asked, resting her stilettoed heel on my desk._

"_Call me Eel," I said, trying to keep my stretching under control - with a dame like that, my eyes popping out of my head was the least of my worries._

_She stared down at me, her pale face unaffected by the heat. "Eel by name..." she began coolly, but then was interrupted by the gnawing of a carrot behind her. _

_I looked over her shoulder, and then noticed for the first time she'd brought company._

"_And there was me thinking you didn't have a hare out of place," I wisecracked._

"_I'm no hare; I'm a rabbit," said her big-eared companion angrily._

"_He's the reason I'm here," she added._

"_Let me guess. He's been framed?" I ventured._

"_No, he told me you had the answers. Told me… you knew my father."_

"_Sure, I knew your old man," I replied, "Used to work with him long ago. He's the reason I came to Vegas... You're the reason I came to Vegas."_

_She leaned towards me eagerly. "Tell me more."_

"_I would, but first I want some answers."_

"_I've not got time for answers," she said, her eyebrows rising, the shadow from the blinds throwing one side of her face into darkness. "If you've got information, tell me now."_

_Then she started motioning with her hand, and looked down at me, with a look that froze me, making me forget about the heatwave, making me forget about everything. At that moment, I knew she could wrap me around her little finger and then fold, spindle and mutilate me to her heart's content._

"_This isn't what your father would want," I said, stretching and looming over her, and then cursed myself for what might turn out to be lousy last words._

_Suddenly, Zatanna shivered and stepped back, as if realizing what she was doing. "I'm... I'm sorry. It's... it's just that every second I waste could endanger father more." And with that, she started crying, and the next thing I knew I was holding her, my arms wrapped around and around and around her. The others had told me how she'd become more powerful than ever, but all I saw then was a scared little girl, scared for her father, scared for herself._

"_Your father gave me something to give to you," I said, and her sobbing started to subside._

_As I led her into the next room, to give her the artifact, I looked into her innocent face, and kept telling myself that the mistress of deception wasn't just playing me for a sap.

* * *

_

As Zee followed Eel down a corridor, they passed a wardrobe.

"Still not sure whether I can trust you or not," he said, throwing his trench coat into the wardrobe, and grabbing a tux. "The others told me how you were kidnapped by Tamara, and now they say you're starting to act like her. I sure hope this isn't one of those villain-disguised-as-hero type deals."

"You're not suggesting I'm Tamara," replied a stunned Zatanna, with hurt in her eyes.

Basil, seeing his mistress's discomfort at the suggestion, backed her up. "No way. Tamara is another dame."

"Frankly, rabbit, I don't give a damn," replied Eel, stretching into his white tie and tails. "Turns out I'm going to help her anyway. I owe her old man that much. Besides, things aren't always black and white - I wasn't always a good guy you know."

"Thank you, Mister O'Brien..." began Zatanna.

"No need for formalities. The name's Eel... But you can call me Plas."

"Thank you, Plas," she said as the top of his head then took the shape of a top hat and he led her into the neighboring office. It was a lot larger than his first office, at least ten times larger, and it contained a ballroom and a full scale orchestra.

Zatanna blanched as she realized what was bound to happen next. All of that walking from earlier had left her with aching feet, and she'd had enough musicals to last her the day. A Fred and Ginger riff was the last thing she needed.

"I won't dance. Don't ask me," she found herself suddenly singing at the strange-headed man opposite her.

At the same time, Basil rolled his eyes. Another musical number would be another musical number too many, and so he decided, now that he'd helped his mistress get one step closer to finding her father, it was time to bid his animated life adieu, before rabbit season rolled around. He leaped at his mistress's top hat, knocking it from off her head, and then grabbed the hat and started pulling it over himself.

"He's putting on my top hat, vanishing his white fur, vanishing his tail," sang Zee in exasperation, as Basil disappeared into the top hat, leaving it rolling around on the ground.

As Zee picked up her hat, and thrust her arm into it, trying to fish around and find Basil inside, she heard Plas tap dancing behind her. Exasperated, she turned around. "Listen," she said. "This isn't going to work. You say 'potato' and I say 'otatop', let's call the whole thing off."

But then Zee noticed that Plas was neither looking at her, nor listening to her quip. His attention was focused fully on the floor, as he performed an intricate dance step.

* * *

At first she didn't realize that there was an actual pattern to what he was doing, but then she watched more closely as the music swelled and his feet kept hitting the same spots in the floor, over and over, faster and faster. She was just about to question him when a large rectangular section of the dance floor began to glow a bright blue. 

Plas took three graceful twirls to the right, removing himself from the glowing spot as the floor began to lower itself, a set of stairs magically appearing that led downward into some kind of basement level.

"Not bad, huh?" he asked with a grin. "Your old man taught me how to open it, right before things went bad." Eel smiled as he brought his arm outward toward the trap door, indicating for her to lead the way down the magical steps. "I knew John for many, many years. Even before you were born."

Hesitantly, she walked past him and began her descent. "How did you know him? Wait a minute, how old are you?"

"Much older than I look, actually; which makes me wiser and more experienced - just don't tell anyone, I don't want my reputation spoiled. Your father and I used to be members of… well… a team. We were a quiet team, didn't get much recognition. It didn't last long, but your father trusted me with a few things before he set off again, and I've been waiting for you to show up, so I could finally show you. Hold on a minute." He stretched his neck up and looked at the swing band that had just finished playing. He snapped his fingers as his face stretched and morphed into a perfect imitation of Humphrey Bogart. "Hey, Sam, play that last one again!"

"You got it, boss."

Then the two of them disappeared into the darkness of what seemed to be some kind of cellar. A tunnel went forward.

Zee muttered some words and a light appeared in her hands, illuminating the way.

Plas looked at Zatanna, her face lit up by the light. "Okay, sweetheart, here's the lowdown. Your old man wanted me to make sure that, if anything happened to him, I would keep a few things of his safe. They're things that he had found during his travels. Items that could be dangerous in the hands of the wrong mystical punks, you see. So I've been keeping them down here, and I think one of these trinkets can help you find John."

Zatanna continued to walk down the corridor, the ball of energy giving off less and less energy. It was still frustrating to her. Her normal powers seemed to be weakening as her new found powers were growing in strength.

She felt her hat lift up a bit on her head and heard Basil muse, "Everything's still black and white; we're in some kind of brick tunnel that is rather dark and creepy looking. Yep, I think I'm going to stay in here for a while longer. Looks like we've gone from musicals to Mummy movies." And with that, he disappeared again.

They came to a door at the end of the corridor and Eel walked up to it. It had five locks on the outside of it

"How do we get in?" Zatanna asked.

"Through some rather simple locks, actually." He then knocked on the door in the classic _shave and a haircut, two bits_ and then shouted, "Hey Moe!" The first lock opened.

Plas continued. "Why I oughta…" The second lock opened. "HEEYYY Abbott!" he shouted and the third lock gave way. "I'm sorry, Ollie," he said as he scratched the top of his head, which seemed to open the forth lock. Then he stood there, staring at the final lock.

"Well don't stop now," Zee said anxiously.

"Actually, I need your help with the last one."

"Okay, what do I need to do?"

"It's kind of long…"

"Let's just do it!" she exclaimed, frustration coming through in her voice.

Plas shrugged. "Who's on first?"

Zatanna's eyebrows shot up. "You're kidding?"

"Who's on first?" Eel insisted.

With a heavy sigh, she began the final ritual, the final routine.

Five minutes later they uttered the last words together, "THIRD BASE!" and the final lock clicked open.

They entered the room to find nothing more than a small table with a few items on it; none of which Zatanna recognized.

"This one," he said, as he handed her an item that was shaped much like a flashlight, "he told me that he took this from a Sorceress with great power. He said when I felt the time was right, that you should have it."

Zatanna looked over the magical piece. What was she supposed to do with _this_?

* * *

Eel saw the puzzled expression on Zatanna's face as she examined the mystical flashlight. "Your father never told me what you were supposed to do with it," he explained, unhelpfully. 

"It doesn't matter," she replied, filled with new hope having realized that this strange artifact might just lead her to her father. "I'll do what I always do when I hit an obstacle."

"And what's that?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"I'll use magic. You know how to make magic, don't you, Eel?" she asked wickedly. "You just open your mouth, and make your tongue and fingers do the work."

A smile lit up her face, as backwards words suddenly flowed from her lips and her fingers moved in intricate patterns.

"_cigaM nretnal, laever ruoy sterces!"_

As she finished her sentence, her magic once again exceeded her expectations as a miniature tornado leapt from the lantern, surrounding her and then carrying her through the air. As she looked around, she could barely make out her surroundings, as she occasionally saw Plastic Man flash by her, as he stood back from the small whirlwind engulfing her, looking towards her in horror. And then, everything went black as she heard the sound of a wall being ripped away, and she finally succumbed to unconsciousness.

It was only a second later, or maybe a minute, or perhaps a year, when Zatanna regained consciousness and looked out of the surrounding maelstrom to see that the blacks and whites had finally gone to be replaced with brilliant colors; outside there was a vast expanse of bright blue surrounding her. As she managed to grab her top hat, as it flew towards her, the tornado disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, leaving her aloft in a large blue cloudless sky.

As she plummeted downwards through the sky to the yellow corn fields below, she held on tightly to her hat and saw her rabbit bobbing his frightened head out.

"Basil, I've got a feeling we're not in Vegas anymore."

* * *

Her name is Tamara and she is the half sister of Zatanna Zatara. She infiltrated her sister's world by joining the organization called The Royal Flush Gang, as the Ten of Spades. Her goal was to get close to the sister she had never known, to acquire her sister's power, a power so unlike her own. 

As Tamara sat in her high back chair she felt the rush of foreign magic cover her world. The magic of the two sisters had finally joined in one world, a world that was slowing transforming into the movie motif spell that had started the entire journey.

She watched as the colors in her world became brighter and more vivid, her outfit shifted and changed, resembling that of a dark queen from a Walt Disney movie of so long ago. They would call it a classic on her sister's world, a love story about a sleeping princess.

A cheerful little bluebird came flying into her window and landed on her shoulder. She smiled at it sweetly and held out her hand. It came to her instantly, chirping away with its own style of song.

Then, her hand closed around it as she cast a spell; the bluebird went up in a burst of flames, and then was gone.

"Welcome to my home, dear sister," Tamara whispered to herself. "I guarantee you this movie does not end happily ever after… "


	2. Across The Multiverse

_**Chapter Two - Across The Multiverse**_

High in a Technicolor blue sky, Zatanna Zatara looked over to a rainbow in the distance, and then she looked down below at the ground fast approaching her. 

_Don't look down,_ is what they tell you, and for her rabbit Basil, peeking out timidly from the top hat his mistress clung to her chest, this would have been good advice. While the rabbit looked down, frozen, as if he was caught in some headlights, Zatanna looked down, at the landscape below, in wonder and recognition.

She'd been here before, to this timeless town, back as a teenager, when she'd been assisting in her father's magic act. The bright blue sky above and the yellow cornfields below were unmistakable, although the Technicolor couldn't quite do them justice. Also, there were some strange shapes carved into the numerous cornfields below that were definitely new.

"Smallville," she gasped, and then as the ground rushed toward her, she realized now was the time to check that her magic powers were once again working.

She opened her mouth to speak, letting go of the top hat with one hand, so that her fingers were free to help with the spell, when she suddenly found herself being swept up in some powerful arms. Turning her head, she saw the man holding her... a face familiar yet different.

"Superman!?" she gasped.

The man holding her, as they descended towards the ground, looked slightly taken aback. "That was my father," he said, setting her gently down in a cornfield.

"Your father?" echoed Zee in disbelief. "What year is this?"

"You don't know what year this is?" he asked in return.

"Funny story," she explained, trying to make sense of her surroundings. "Looks like I've gone the wrong way over the rainbow and somehow ended up in Kansas?"

"Well, you're definitely in Kansas," he replied, using his X-ray vision to check this new arrival, spouting her strange comments, for signs of concussion. "My name's Joe and, don't worry, you'll be safe here."

"Safe?" asked Zatanna, for a second forgetting her predicament. "Safe from what?"

"The others," Joe replied.

Zee looked at the innocent face before her and wondered if he was being deliberately cryptic. "The Others? What, am I stuck in Lost now?" she wondered aloud.

"Sorry?" asked the confused Joe, unaware where this 'Lost' place she talked of was located.

Zee paused for a moment. "No, it's me who should be sorry. I've just been having a bad day. It started when I woke up and found myself in a silent movie, and it's been going downhill ever since. I guess it must be Tamara's doing."

"Tamara?"

"My evil half-sister. First she keeps me imprisoned me for a year, and now she's turned my life into a movie compilation... and, trust me, that's so _not_ entertainment."

"It all sounds a bit too complicated," said Joe, scratching his head. "I'm not sure I can help."

"Well, most of all," said Zee, pulling a magic lantern from her top hat, "I'm looking for my father, Zatara. He left me this device which transported me here."

"Zatara?" exclaimed Joe. "If you want him then you and your rabbit will have to travel to the Land of Zod."

"You're kidding me?" said a skeptical Zee. "Have I got to follow a yellow brick road to get there?"

Joe fell silent for a moment. "A yellow brick..."

"Forget it, Joe, this day's just getting to be a bit of a snarky comment magnet. Anyway, I've not got time for small talk. I need to find my father and get reality back to reality," said Zee. "Show me where this Land of Zod is and I'll be on my way."

"No, you'll need help... I'll take you to the witch. After all, it was her who sent me to collect you."

"The witch?" exclaimed Zee, buttoning her snarky lip before it could enquire whether the witch was good and called Glinda. "What crazy sort of place has Tamara's spell dragged me to now?"

"I guess all this magic stuff must be kind of weird for you," said Joe, looking at her outfit, "you just being a performer."

"A performer?!" she said angrily.

"I'm sure you're a great performer," said Joe, backing away, trying to calm her down. "Anyway, I know somebody who can explain it all much better than I can. Do you mind if I sing as we go there? I suddenly feel a compulsion to."

Suddenly Zee forgot her anger at this man who'd just mistaken her for, of all things, a Muggle. "Yeah, that singing stuff's my fault I guess," admitted Zee, "or maybe Tamara's. Either that or my father's got one really weird sense of humor."

And with that she wrapped her arm around his and they set off, dancing and singing, down the nearest road.

* * *

Zee was very conflicted at she skipped down the road with her new friend, Joe. Things were becoming even more bizarre as she went on. She held Basil a bit closer to her and whispered in his ear. 

The rabbit looked up at her as if to reply, _I'm well aware that there is no place like home, silly girl; however, since we are __**not**__ home, I suggest you get your act together and figure out how to get us out of this mess, or at the very least, to the end of this adventure._

Or perhaps she was just projecting.

On the other hand, she thought to herself, she couldn't help but admit that whatever was going on, a part of her was having a gay old time. In fact, she was ready to burst into song, but held it in. Joe had already done four verses of some kind of Kryptonian pop ballad that she could have sworn was going to make her ears bleed at any second.

As they merrily skipped down the road, off to see the General, the wonderful General called Zod, Joe suddenly stopped. "I thought I heard someone calling your name, over and over again," he said, as Zatanna came to a halt.

"I didn't hear anything," said Zatanna.

"Super-hearing," Joe said, pointing at his ear and giving her a wink.

"If you've got all of these super-powers why don't you just fly us to this good witch of yours?" asked a confused Zee, her feet starting to ache again.

"I can't fly," admitted Joe sheepishly. "You're thinking of my father. I can just jump really high," he continued, as he entered a field, and pushed through some corn to see a familiar sight.

"Ah. This is what I heard," he said, as he hit his forehead with his open palm. "If I only had a brain. I should have realized it was him... the man frozen in time."

Zee, still confused, walked over to look at this so-called frozen man. "What? Don't tell me you've found a Tin Man," she said, and then walked over to see a man in a suit and a bow tie standing there looking at his watch.

She stopped dead in her tracks as she gazed upon the face of the young man who had photographed her several times when she had performed in Metropolis. His red hair now seemed brighter and unnaturally ginger.

"Jimmy Olsen?"

* * *

As Zatanna looked at the freckle-faced reporter, she suddenly noticed that he, along with the bright yellow corn behind him, was fading into black and white, and then, as he stood there, looking intently at his wristwatch, he faded completely, disappearing and then reappearing several steps behind where he'd just been standing. He was still looking at his watch, and his finger was pressing a button on it. 

_**Zee-Zee-Zee**_

"So it was his watch I thought was calling your name," said Joe, realizing his mistake and rolling his eyes. "Let's get going," he added quickly, taking hold gently of Zatanna's arm.

"Wait!" demanded Zatanna and Jimmy Olsen in unison.

"Clark? Is that you?" continued Jimmy, taken aback, tears coming to his eyes.

"No, I'm his son," said Joe, with a hint of exasperation.

"But how?" asked a confused Jimmy.

"I'm sorry, Jimmy," Joe said, "but I'm not going through this again."

"Through what again?" asked Jimmy, growing even more perplexed, as Clark walked away through the monochrome cornfield.

"Wait!" yelled Jimmy as he ran after the man claiming to be Clark's son, but, even though Joe was just walking, the speed he did it at meant that he was getting further and further away from the Planet reporter.

Zatanna just stood there, in the grayness of the cornfield, tapping her foot impatiently, and wondering which movie this one was going to be, when suddenly Jimmy Olsen reappeared in the place where he'd reappeared previously, and looked at his wristwatch intently, as he pressed the button on it yet again.

_**Zee-Zee-Zee**_

"What does that do?" asked a curious Zee. "Is it some kind of teleportation device?"

Jimmy Olsen looked at her, with weary eyes. "It doesn't do anything... not now... but I still like to press it every once in a while... just in case."

"Just in case what?" asked Zee, still confused.

Jimmy sat down on the ground. "Just in case _he_ comes back."

"Just in case who comes back?"

"Superman," he replied.

"Where's he gone?" asked Zee innocently.

Jimmy Olsen just looked at her stunned. How could she not know? Finally, he said it, forcing the words out, feeling that feeling in the pit of his stomach just as intense as the first time he'd delivered the news, and now, just as then, he was still unable to believe it fully.

"He's not gone anywhere... He's dead... Superman's dead."

* * *

"How?" asked Zee, stunned and unable to even contemplate the Man of Steel's demise, but then Jimmy disappeared off the ground, and once again reappeared where he'd started, pressing his watch. 

_Great, I'm stuck in Groundhog Day,_ thought Zee. No wonder Joe left.

"So, tell me about Superman," she asked straight away, realizing that there was only a limited time for questioning before he leapt back to his original position.

Jimmy looked at Zatanna, no recognition in his eyes, but it was a story he needed to share:

"I thought Superman was my pal, but he never even bothered to tell me his real name. His name was Clark Joseph Kent. He was a newspaperman. Probably the greatest man who ever lived," began Jimmy Olsen. "He built a large fortress; where he could be alone from the world, and it was there that he died. I'm investigating his life, how he died, and the meaning of his last words"

Zatanna just stood there, listening, as a black and white flashback filled her mind…

_It's a chill November in the Fortress of Solitude as a happy Superman looks at the snow-filled Bottle City of Kandor. She sees his face change, not with pain so much as with shock, followed by fear. His legs give out and he stumbles back onto the Kyrptonian equivalent of a chaise longue. The bottled city slips from his hand as he falls to the ground. Now she sees pain in his face and realizes that he is writing something over and over on the floor. RAO._

The flashback in her mind didn't stop abruptly as much as it faded away. Zatanna looked at Jimmy Olsen, who vanished only to reappear once again where he'd been earlier.

Rather than disturbing him this time, she watched him, lost in his thoughts, as he kept walking across the cornfield only to magically reappear each time in his original spot. He was focused on his own world, his own dilemma and did not notice the young woman staring at him.

Taking a deep breath, she said a spell and moved her fingers, the power coursing through her, yet it was not to be; Jimmy Olsen continued his loop, not noticing her unless she drew his attention her way, and then that would only result in a short conversation, that she knew he'd forget by the start of his next loop.

She stepped out of the cornfield as frustrated as ever, only to realize that everything was still in black and white.

"Oh come on! I thought we'd upgraded!" she shouted to no one in particular.

Joe appeared at her side.

"I tried to unfreeze him, but it didn't work," confided Zatanna.

"He's been that way as long as I can remember," said Joe. "The witch says a powerful sorceress did that to him."

"I heard about your father... I'm... I'm sorry."

"It's okay," said Joe. "I never even met him. Besides, that happened a long, long time ago. Back in 1959."

"1959?" asked Zee.

"There's too much to explain," said Clark, leading her by the hand, "but there's one man here who wants to try."

As they reached a bridge, snow started to fall. Joe looked around for a moment, reassured her that he'd be back, and then left her there, looking over the bridge,

Zatanna waited for him, her thoughts floating back to the beginning of this crazy adventure, knowing in her heart, that this was all tied into her father's disappearance; she could feel it. The question was… how?

If someone would have told her three years ago that she was going to find out that her father might still be alive, and that she had a half-sister, a powerful magician in her own right, who would become the Ten of Spades for the Royal Flush Gang, she would have told them they were crazy. Now she was just wondering if _she_ was crazy.

Suddenly a man in a dark cloak and a fedora appeared behind her.

She turned around, nonplussed at this point that someone had just appeared out of nowhere. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"Not on this world," he said. "But as on all other worlds, I am but a stranger…"

* * *

Zatanna looked at the stranger, and the fog that surrounded him, once again at a loss to figure out what movie she was in, when suddenly the stranger's deep voice interrupted her speculation. 

"Zatanna," he began, "have you ever wondered what would happen if history had taken a different turn?"

As the wind turned chill and suddenly snow began falling all around, the daughter of Zatara slapped her open palm against her forehead. "Oh, I get it," she said, "this must be 'It's A Wonderful Life'... which I guess makes you an angel called Clarence looking for his wings."

The stranger was silent as he looked at her, his face unreadable. "No, Zatanna," he finally replied, "my name is not Clarence... Not on this world. Not on yours."

"Not on mine?" asked Zatanna, curious as to the enigmatic stranger's meaning.

"There are many, many universes, Zatanna Zatara. Too many to number, too many to contemplate; all unique. Sometimes the differences are minute, sometimes the differences are vast. While yours is an Earth full of heroes, another Earth might be ruled by villains. Similarly, what's happening on your Earth now might be just a repetition of something similar that's happened on another world previously."

Zatanna looked at him patiently, but wasn't taken in by his words. With the cloak and the smoke he reminded her of so many other mysterious magical figures that put on a great show, but like those others she had no doubt that he was just a clever illusionist.

"I know you don't believe me," he said. "I know you just think this is yet another result of that magical spell that's plagued you all day. I know that you're still trying to figure out why my breath isn't visible in this cold air."

"You know a lot," replied Zee dismissively, before sarcastically adding, "Do you know what evil lies in the heart of me?"

For the briefest of seconds, the stranger's lips turned into a frown. "Yes, I know; but I don't think you do. Not yet."

Suddenly, a chill ran down Zatanna's spine, and it wasn't because of the snow.

"Now, listen, Zatanna, and listen well to what I am about to tell you, for if you wish to find your father then you must know about this world you've been brought to."

Zatanna remained silent as the stranger continued talking.

"There is much we can perceive, Zatanna, but most choose to ignore it. Those are the worlds, on the edge of our existence; the possibilities that could have been. I know all about you, Zatanna, and all about your Earth. I know about the new age of heroes that has dawned there recently, with Superman, Batman, the Justice League..."

"The New Outsiders," added Zatanna.

The stranger ignored Zee's interruption and continued. "On this Earth, that age of heroes started decades earlier, and flickered ever so briefly, until it finished all so suddenly in 1959, with a locked room mystery as Superman was found dead in the Fortress of Solitude, with the word RAO scrawled over and over again on the floor."

"So I heard," said Zatanna, with a nod, "but who did it?"

"I have come to tell you what you need to know," replied the stranger, "not what you think you need to know, so, if I may, I will continue with my tale… Two years later, in 1961, the league of heroes that had gathered together to try and track down his killer were all found dead, their bodies twisted like rag dolls."

"So, there was a hero killer?"

"Infer what you will, Miss Zatara. All that I can tell you is that the deaths of those heroes - Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, the Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman - left a legacy. On this Earth, where the greatest heroes were fallible and seldom came back to life, it was exceedingly rare for people to devote their lives to daring-do and vigilantism, and sidekicks following in their mentors' footsteps were few and far between. Naturally, there are always exceptions, and the odd youngster would try to carry on the tradition, but inevitably they'd end up crushed beneath the key of a giant typewriter or some other macabre fate."

"So, there are no heroes on this Earth?" asked a bewildered Zatanna.

"There are always heroes, Zatanna, and not all heroes wear costumes," replied the stranger. "But time is running short, so I must continue with my story. I'll move forward to the 1970s, when the numerous conspiracy theories that had grown around who killed Superman seemed to have an answer as the inhabitants of the Phantom Zone suddenly appeared and took over this Earth, or, to give it its current name, New Krypton."

Zee looked at the stranger in shock, struggling to believe it could be true, as he continued to tell his tale.

"It was soon after they appeared, that the Kryptonians converted all of the kryptonite on Earth into iron, and, after that, the evil Kryptonians only had one weakness left."

"Magic," said Zatanna.

"Magic," echoed the stranger, with the hint of a nod. "Some magic users perished at the Kryptonians' hands, others, that were never meant to die, didn't have that luxury." In order to demonstrate, he pulled back the black cloak that surrounded him to reveal the black and white shimmering suit underneath.

Zatanna turned her face away from him, feeling sick, as the realization hit her that the suit was actually black, and the white shimmering flecks crawling across it were actually maggots.

And then, slowly, she turned to face him, only to see that the snow had stopped falling and the stranger had gone, leaving no footprints in the snow on the ground where he'd once been standing.

* * *

In her own part of the world, Zatanna's half-sister watched the events that were unfolding with a mixture of amusement and disgust. 

"I hate _It's A Wonderful Life_," she spat. "Nothing more than a boring, clichéd piece of garbage. Now if he had thrown himself off the bridge in the end, ignoring that pesky and ridiculous little angel… now _that_ would have been a great ending. Actually, I'd like to see how wonderful a life I could have if Zatanna would just fling herself off that bridge right now."

"Now, now, my sweet little daughter; how many times have I warned you that that temper of yours could get you into trouble someday."

Tamara turned to the figure that sat in a chair, delegated to the shadows, which she preferred. "I know, mother dearest, but let's face it, this hasn't been at all the fun I was hoping it would be. Even the movie spell that I placed her in hasn't really been that entertaining for me. I say we just do away with her."

"We can't do that, darling," the woman replied sweetly, "and you know why. She is the key to acquiring Zatara. We must play this out to the end."

Tamara moaned, "But how long will that be, mother?"

"Soon, my pretty. Things are moving along just as they should. In a very short time she will be meeting the rest of her supporting cast; once everyone has found their mark, we can begin."

Tamara turned back sullenly but said nothing as she once again watched the image in front of her.

* * *

Back on the bridge, Zatanna stood there, watching the seasons quickly changing around her; the snow melted as the chill air started to warm up, and soon Technicolor was once again rushing in, turning the sky a vivid blue. As an animated hummingbird landed on her shoulder and tapped its foot impatiently, waiting for her to burst into song, her attention was instead focused on the blurred figure zooming down the road towards her. As the blurred figure slowed down, coming to a stop in front of her, she realized it was Joe. 

"Faster than a speeding bullet," she observed.

"Not quite," he replied apologetically. "Anyway, did The Stranger explain things?"

"He sure did," replied Zatanna, feigning enthusiasm. She was still skeptical about whether the world around her was real or just one more part of the spell, but she didn't want to hurt this guy's feelings by questioning his reality. "So," she said, playing along, "are you going to take me to meet this witch you were telling me about?"

"Follow me," he said, with a smile, and once again they set off down the road, but this time, much to Zatanna's relief, they were neither singing nor dancing. Maybe it was a sign that the spell's power was waning, she hoped, and then her thoughts went back to the man she was looking for: her father, Zatara, who'd mysteriously disappeared all those years ago. Suddenly, she found herself thinking back to another time that he'd left her, leaving her alone to clean up the house while he was off doing his magic act. All he'd left her with was a single broomstick and a bucket of water but she'd made it come to life and then made it into two broomsticks and then four and then eight, and they did all her work, and kept doing her work, and soon there was water everywhere and she was there, trying in vain to stop it, running around in her big red gown, and her blue magician's hat with the white stars on it, not to mention her big round mouse ears...

_Oh, no. The spell's even tampering with my memories,_ realized Zatanna, with dismay, but then her attention was drawn to the Smallville farmhouse they were now approaching, as the bluebird on her shoulder hopped off in order to join the other animated creatures that were singing a song outside it. And then the witch came out of that house, looking more beautiful to Zatanna than any fairy tale princess had ever looked.

Joe looked over at Zee, as he heard her heart suddenly racing, and then he saw the look on her face, and noticed the tears welling in her eyes. He wondered what was wrong, but, for Zatanna, nothing was wrong. If she'd not believed this was another world before, not believed any of this was real, then she believed it completely, with all of her heart, now, as all skepticism was washed away by the sight of the blonde woman standing before her.

"Mother?!" she gasped.

* * *

Sindella looked at the young woman with the same gentle eyes that Zatanna's own mother used to gaze upon her. Her mind was telling her this was not her world, not her mother, but her heart was screaming and breaking, a feat she didn't realize was possible. 

The music that had been playing when they saw each other began to swell as Zee made her way to the woman, her pace quickening as the violins began to crescendo into a frenzy of melody that seemed to encompass the entire farm.

"Oh, cut that out," Sindella snapped irritably as she waved her hands and all that could be heard were the distant sounds of birds.

Zee stopped short of hugging the woman as she was taken aback at the sudden absence of the continual music that had followed her through her journey, thus far.

"How did you…?"

"The farm is under my protection. There are runes surrounding us that we have constructed to keep away the evils of this world. As long as you are here, you are safe. No harm can come to you."

"Mother?" she whispered again, tears rolling down her face as she approached Sindella, reaching out to her, wanting to touch her, to make sure she was real.

The compassion in the woman's eyes and the gentleness in her voice made her words, no matter how soft, stab Zatanna through the heart like nothing else could. "No, child, I'm afraid not. My daughter was slain several years ago. She was beautiful, just like you, and just as radiant."

They stood there for a moment; Joe standing off to the side a bit uncomfortably, as the two women gazed upon each other. Then, as if they couldn't take it anymore, they embraced tightly, grabbing onto a past that was bittersweet by the appearance of each other.

After a few moments they broke away, wiping the tears from their eyes. "Please," Sindella said with a strained voice, "Come in and relax while I make us some iced tea. I'm sure you're both tired from your journey."

"Welcome to my home," Joe said with a smile as they entered the farmhouse.

"You live here?"

"He has for nearly all of his life," Sindella replied from the kitchen as she acquired the drinks. "We took him in after the death of his parents and raised him as our own. He grew up to be such a wonderful young man… his father would be so proud of him."

She sat down after serving them. "The resemblance to my daughter is uncanny," she murmured over her glass. Her eyes were examining every inch of the young magician.

"Why the runes? The protection?"

"We had to keep Joe safe from the Kryptonians. Magic is a weakness of theirs, and one that we were able to use to our advantage."

"You did all this?" Zee asked as she gazed out of the picture window at the wheat fields surrounding the farm.

"Yes," Sindella replied proudly. "Well, Joe and I did."

"Some of these runes look familiar to me," Zee mused. "I wish my father could examine them… my father…" She trailed off again; wondering what his reaction would be if he met this woman who was so much like his long-lost wife.

"Your father…?"

"Yes, Mother," Joe spoke up, and proceeded to tell her what he had told Zatanna. Sindella agreed that Zod was the answer.

"I can tell you, Zatanna, that your father is being held in Metropolis; against his will, obviously."

"What!" Zee exclaimed, her glass slipping from her hand. Joe's super quick reflexes helped him catch it before it hit the floor.

"Yes, my darling. As far as I know, he's alive, and the prisoner of the Kryptonians. A powerful mage like your father is too dangerous for them to have running loose, but at the same time, could be a great asset to them."

"Then we need to rescue him!" she exclaimed as she grabbed her hat and headed for the door. When she realized that they weren't following her, she stopped. "Please… you've got to help me!"

Sindella shook her head. "No, it's impossible. Metropolis is too well-guarded. It's an impossible feat."

"I don't buy that," Zee said, her eyes flaring with the combined power of her and her half-sister. "There has to be a way!"

Sindella's eyes had widened at the momentary display of the dark magic. "What has happened to you?"

Zatanna looked away, ashamed. "It's a long story, and one I would gladly tell you about, on our way. Please, I can't do this alone, and I need to rescue my father."

"It can't be done."

"If it was your daughter… or your husband? Would you just abandon them? Or would you fight with your last breath to try and save them?"

Joe watched his adoptive mother carefully, knowing that his new friend had chosen her words perfectly. When Sindella sighed in resignation, Joe stood up. "I'll gather some things that we may need."

After he had left, Sindella walked over to the young woman. "I can't promise you anything, but we'll try."

"That's all I ask, Moth-" She stopped herself. The word had almost come out without her even realizing it. "I'm… I'm sorry."

Sindella smiled. "Don't be, dear. I truly wish you were my daughter."

She put her arm around Zee's shoulders as they both looked towards the fields and beyond.

* * *

As she stood there, next to her _mother_, both of them lost in silence, no doubt thinking about a life that could have been, Zatanna was beginning to wish that moment could go on forever. Still, while she'd have loved to stay here in Smallville with this Sindella for several more days, maybe weeks, perhaps years, she'd come here to rescue her father, and that was what she was going to do. 

Suddenly, there was a draft from the door, as Joe suddenly appeared in the room. "We've got to go to City Hall," he said.

"City Hall?" echoed a confused Zee. "Don't tell me I've got to deliver a filibuster."

A puzzled Sindella looked at her daughter who wasn't her daughter and smiled. "City Hall is no longer a place of government here in Smallville, child. These days it's just a meeting place for the magic people."

"The magic people?"

"Once the Kryptonians took over, the surviving sorcerers, psychics and trench coat wearers took refuge here in Smallville, constructing mystic runes in the cornfields to keep our enemies from entering."

"But I need to find my father," demanded Zee, wary of any further distractions getting in her way.

"Don't rush in, child," cautioned Sindella. "While you're here, in Smallville, you're safe from the Kryptonians and their spies. Use the rest of this day to plan ahead, and gather some allies. Tomorrow, after you've rested; then you can begin your quest.

Before Zatanna had time to argue, Sindella had transported them to the Smallville City Hall.

"Looks like the spell's in effect here," Sindella observed, looking around. Three showgirls - one beautiful, young and blonde, the other two old and grotesque – were dancing around on the stage, accompanied by a deerstalker-wearing chimpanzee who was playing honky-tonk piano. Meanwhile, the rest of the inhabitants, wearing a variety of Stetsons and ten gallon hats, were either crowded around the bar, gathered around tables playing poker, or engaged in fistfights. Every so often someone would fire their gun into the air.

"Yeah, it's a lot quieter here than normal," agreed Joe, as he stepped over Abel's corpse for the third time that month.

"These people are supposed to help me?" asked an exasperated Zatanna as she watched the chaos going on around her.

"If you're going to leave Smallville, let alone take on those Kryptonians, you'll need all the help you can get," Sindella advised. "But choose carefully, child. There are some here who would deceive you."

"So, who are they?" asked Zee.

"It's not my place to say. Just trust your instincts, child. Also, listen to Joe; he knows everybody here as well as I do. As for myself, well, I have to go."

"Go?" said Zee, visibly hurt, reluctant to let this other Sindella out of her sight for even a second.

"If you're to set off on your quest, I'll need to make some preparations," began Sindella. "Don't worry. Joe will look after you."

"But-" began Zee, but, before she could say another word, Sindella, with but a gesture, disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"It's okay," said Joe, putting a comforting hand on Zee's shoulder. "We'll see her again soon enough."

"I know," said Zee, biting her lip, and then switching her emotions off – something that had been coming increasingly easy to her recently – and turning her attention back to the mission in hand. "So, Joe, who do we choose?"

"It won't be easy finding volunteers," replied Joe. "There are lots of powerful mages here, but few would dare face the Kryptonians; not after what they did previously." And with that, he led Zatanna around the wild west saloon that City Hall had been transformed into, pushing anyone who got in their path aside with a blast of his super- breath.

Zatanna's eyes took in the scene, recognizing some of the costumes, most of whom she'd only heard about from her father. Some were villains, such as Felix Faust or the Wizard - at least they were on her world - so she gave them a wide berth, wary of trusting them on this world either. Then her eyes set on a man sitting at the bar, his face in profile, and shrouded in smoke. She recognized him immediately, and came to a halt at that moment without even realizing it.

The next minute, having gotten over her initial surprise, she'd left Joe and was now marching up to the man at bar.

"John?" she said.

The man didn't even turn his face towards her, but continued staring straight forward at the glass of whiskey in front of him.

"Howdy, stranger," he said. "Do I know you?"

"No, I guess not," replied Zatanna, seeing the blank look on his face. "Not in this world."

"That's a shame," he replied, "'cause you're mighty purty. Yeah, I'm sure I'd remember you."

"Well, I'm not from around these parts," replied Zee, and then hesitated, before swallowing all her pride. "I... I need help..."

"You came to the right man, missy. So, what do you want - a gunslinger, a bounty hunter, or just a well-equipped gigo-"

"We don't need his help," interrupted Joe, suddenly standing behind Zee and the man.

"It's okay, Joe," said Zee, "I can handle John Constantine."

"That's right, little Joe," John added with a smirk. "Why don't you go outside and punch a horse or something?"

Joe looked at John Constantine for a second, his super-quick mind going through all of the possibilities of what he'd like to do to him, before he reluctantly relented. "Okay," he said to Zatanna, "I'll go and find some _real_ help. Be careful of him."

"I will," said Zatanna, and, as Joe instantly disappeared to somewhere else in the room, she turned her attention back to the side of John's face she could see.

"That wasn't very nice," said Zee.

"I'm not a nice guy," admitted John. "Then again, who wants nice guys?"

Zee looked at John in wonderment. Sure he was from a different world, and the spell was making him talk in a John Wayne drawl, but underneath it all he was still the same Constantine.

"So, how can I help you, missy?" he asked, unsettled by the way she was staring at him.

"It's my father..." began Zee.

"You want me to off him?"

"No," replied Zatanna in disgust, "I need help in rescuing him from Zod."

"Zod?" John echoed, and took a drink of whiskey. "Me and that no-good varmint have met before, and I've got me a score to settle."

"So, you'll help?"

"You realize you're playing with fire," John said, turning his face towards her, so she could finally see both sides of it, "and that means you could get burnt."

Zee looked at him in shock, and, not being able to think of the right words to say, just said the first words that came into her head.

"The smoke... I thought it was from a cigarette."

"Gave them up years ago, lady. Bad for your health," he said, as the smoke from the burning side of his body filled the air between them. "No, it was Zod's heat vision that did this."

"But... but you're still burning."

"My girlfriend cast a spell on it. The flames can't do any further damage, but they still carriy on burning; a constant reminder of that day."

"Does... does it hurt?" Zee asked, and then wished she hadn't, for the expression on John's face was answer enough.

"Anyway, I better get going," he added, breaking the silence. "My girl'll be waiting for me upstairs."

Zee just looked at him, his body half on fire, as he walked away.

"Wait," she finally managed to shout out. "Will you help me?"

John looked back at her and smiled. "Like I said, lady, I've got me a score to settle." And with that he headed off upstairs.

A second later, Joe was by her side again. "What do you think you're doing? We can't trust him. He's got no morals whatsoever."

"Yeah, that's John," she replied. "But if he's anything like the John Constantine that I knew, then Zod's days are numbered."

Joe looked at Zatanna in bewilderment "I guess it's irrelevant anyway," he mused, "because I've found us an army."

"An army?" asked Zatanna, looking at Joe's self-satisfied smile, and the next thing she knew he'd carried her to another part of the saloon.

"Let me introduce Kid Eternity," said Joe.

"Kid Eternity?" she said, looking at the leather-jacketed kid sitting at the bar.

"I bring dead heroes back to life," said Kid Eternity cockily, a glass of beer in his hand. "And with all the dead heroes, that's one pretty mighty Legion of the Dead at your disposal. Isn't that right, 'Keep."

"It's Zee," said a confused Zatanna.

"No, he's talking to Mister Keeper, his imaginary friend," Joe whispered in her ear.

"At least he's not talking to an invisible rabbit," came a voice from under her hat.

"Basil?" she said, taking her hat off, "can you still talk?" She plunged her arm into her hat but came up with nothing.

"Maybe you should take it easy with the drink, lady," advised Kid Eternity, as he stared at this strange woman talking to her hat.

"Are you even old enough to drink?" asked a fuming Zee, looking at the two glasses in front of Kid Eternity.

"Birth certificate says I'm in my seventies," he replied. "That's good enough for me."

"So," said Zee, giving up on her quest to find Basil as she remembered her quest to find her father, "sorry for being so rude, but can you help me."

"Sure, no problem, lady," said the slightly drunk boy who raised his glass to her.

"But, it's dangerous," she said, feeling compelled to warn the young boy before her of what might lie ahead.

The boy laughed. "I know when I'm supposed to die - they told me up in Heaven - and this year isn't it."

"2017, I reckon," said a pale teenage girl, dressed in black cowboy gear, as she propped herself up at the bar next to Kid Eternity. "I won't get that wrong again, believe me."

Zee looked at the girl, for a second thinking the world had once again gone back to black and white. "And you are?"

"Jane... Jane Black," said the girl. "I'm on holiday here today. So, where's Sindella?"

"You know Sindella?" said a surprised Zee.

"I know everyone, Zee," said the young woman with a smile. "Anyway, I was just wondering, with a name like hers, whether Sindella had gone to a ball. That would be another great party for me to crash."

"Speaking of Cinderella, we better get out of here by midnight," said Joe. "That's when those three witches dancing on stage will want to tell their stories."

"Plenty of time yet," said Jane. "But, come tomorrow, my holiday's over, and I go back to the 24/7 grind."

"You can join us," suggested Zee. "We're off to rescue my father."

"Don't I just know it," groaned Jane, her fingers playing with the ankh that hung around her neck. "Only problem is that over the next few weeks, I've got more work on than you could possibly imagine."

Kid Eternity gave 'Jane' a worried look, but she looked back at him, and forced a smile.

"Still, the night's young," she said. "Let's enjoy it while we can."

* * *

Zee heard laughing coming from the center table and wandered over, still overwhelmed at how many people were there that she knew. It was practically a who's who of the magicians and mystics. 

"Got any requests, li'l lady," the monkey at the piano asked as she headed towards the large table to investigate exactly what held the people's attention.

Zatanna stuttered for a moment, "I guess you don't know _Yes, I Have No Bananas_?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" The hairs on the back of his… back… stood up.

"Nothing, umm, I meant nothing. You're doing a great job."

As the chimp turned back to his keys, Zee made her way to the large round table, and found a group of mystics, some of which she recognized, some she didn't, talking about the good ol' days, as a female, who on her world was named June, held onto a very familiar golden mask.

"You remember that time the Doc had that duel with the Spider-Demon right there in the middle of the wheat field. Gotta give him credit, for a guy who was scared of them things, he sure did hold his ground."

Zee removed her hat and sat it at the table as the others looked her over. Only the one she knew as June smiled at her. "Yer not from 'round here, are yous?" she asked.

"No, ma'am, but from where I am, we have a mask just like that. It's worn by one of the greatest mages of our time." June had handed her the mask and she took it and examined it. It was exactly the same as Dr. Fate's.

"Just like here," a gentleman said, his ears piqued with curiosity. "Mind telling us your name?"

Before she could reply, she heard her name being called from the corner. It was done quietly and obviously she was the only one who had heard it. She was compelled to get up at that instant, sitting the helmet down.

As she walked over to the table with the cloaked woman, she didn't notice Basil jumping out of her hat to follow, only to fall into the helmet. She didn't hear the men and women of the table laughing at the turn of events.

When Zee sat down, the woman removed her hood and Zatanna gasped as she sat face to face with Madame Xanadu. This was a woman, who, on her own world, was one that Zee had looked up to for many years. She not only had power, but a special gift as well.

"I was wondering when you would make it here, my child."

"You… you knew I was coming?"

"Of course. I've seen into your world, seen the signs."

Zee gasped, "You've seen into _my_ world?"

"Yes. Anyone can perceive the other worlds, just beyond this dimension, but mostly their senses refuse to; a form of self-preservation for their sanity, if you will," replied Madame Xanadu, flipping her cards as she spoke. "This day has been a long time in the making, but beware, Zatanna, for your search for your father is fraught with danger and peril. The future is ever changing, flowing like a river's heavy current, but I see magic most powerful, and most evil. It wants you."

"Tamara," Zee whispered as she gazed at the cards.

"Your sister…"

"Half-sister," she reminded the mystic, a tad strongly.

Madame Xanadu turned over another card. "She is one of many evils that are out there. A stronger power is with you, though. It threatens to envelop and swallow you. It comes from within you, however."

The young magician turned away. The power that she had taken from Tamara was still with her, and there wasn't a minute that went by that she didn't feel it. It was as if it was eating away at her. She pondered this as Basil suddenly grew to eight feet tall, the helmet of Fate still on him. Then he changed back almost immediately.

"What else do you see?"

"Blood. Your blood and the blood of your family. It is flowing freely, wild, staining the land around us." She flipped over another card, The Tower. "Betrayal. It cuts deep and is unexpected."

"You ready?" came the voice of Joe as he walked up behind her. She nodded. "I guess it's time. We better find John. Thank you, Madame Xanadu," she said as she got up. "At least I think so."

Madame Xanadu watched her leave the table with a sad look on her face, then went back to her cards and turned the last one over… It was the Fool.

* * *

"So, you really want to drag that Constantine creep along?" asked Joe in disbelief, as they walked away from Madame Xanadu's table, and back to the main area of the saloon. 

"Don't worry, Joe," replied Zatanna, taking his hand in hers and smiling at him, "I can handle John."

"But he comes with... well... uh... baggage."

"Tell me about it," said Zatanna, taking a seat at the bar beside Kid Eternity and magicking herself up a drink. Taking a large gulp - after the day she'd had she needed it - she turned her attention to the leather-jacketed youngster by her side. "So, Kid, are you and your imaginary friend okay with starting out with us for Metropolis tomorrow."

"Is that okay?" asked Kid Eternity, addressing the thin air beside him, and then turned to Zee and gave her a thumbs up. "Yeah, we're okay with it."

"And what about your other friend?" Zee asked, looking for the black-clad girl who had been standing next to the youngster a few seconds earlier.

"Oh, she's gone to get her fortune read by Madame Xanadu," explained Kid Eternity, "not that the card ever changes for her."

"Maybe, I should go and ask her," Zee thought aloud, but was then distracted by the golden helmet of Doctor Fate that came hopping along the bar towards her.

"No, point," explained Kid, watching Zatanna pull a white rabbit from out of the helmet, and then struggling to push him back into her top hat. "She says she's got to be back at work tomorrow. Still, she says she'll probably be catching up with us later."

"Anyway, we don't need her," said Joe. "Or Constantine. The Kid will give us an army."

"But I've asked John now," explained Zatanna patiently. "What harm can it do?"

"None whatsoever," said a voice behind them, as John Constantine suddenly seemed to appear out of nowhere. "Actually, my girlfriend's offered to come along and help as well."

"Well, you do have good taste in girlfriends," admitted Zee. "Who have you hooked up with this time?"

As if on cue, a blonde woman, dressed as a saloon girl, suddenly materialized beside John. "Hello, sister," said Tamara.


	3. Magical Mystery Tour

_**Chapter Three - Magical Mystery Tour**_

Shortly after her mother's death, the young Zatanna Zatara had tried conjuring up a copy of her mother, but, no matter how close the copy seemed, it was never quite the same. Some things were irreplaceable, or so she had thought at the time, but now as she walked into the kitchen, and smelt those familiar breakfast spells, and saw her mother standing there, she wasn't quite so sure.

"I heard you had quite a night," said Sindella, struggling to suppress a smile. "All those sorcerers are still trying to bibbidi-bobbidi-boo City Hall back together."

"Well, Tamara turned up," said Zatanna, amused that she now found herself feeling like a naughty child, as she explained the events of last night to her _mother_. "You don't know what she's like, moth-... Sindella. She held me prisoner for a year, and I think she's behind this weird movie spell that's plaguing me, and now she turns up on this world of yours and expects us to be friends."

"So, you tried to kill her?" reproached Sindella.

"She deserved it," said Zee, deadly serious, as she sat down to the breakfast in front of her. "If those other mages hadn't stopped us, I would have done. Still, I've had time to think about it. I don't want to kill her now..."

"Glad to hear it."

"I want to kill her later," continued Zee, staring at her knife. "First, though, she might be able to help me find my father... our father. After that, she's expendable."

Sindella looked at the girl before her, full of hatred for her half-sister, and struggled to find the right words. Zee, lost in her own thoughts, finished the last of the breakfast.

"She's here," said Sindella. "She's with the others outside, waiting for you."

Zee looked at her mother from another world, and realized, that if she looked at her much longer, she would never be able to leave. "I better get going. I need to rescue my father from those Kryptonians... then I'll be back."

"I'm sure you will," replied Sindella, following the girl who, in another lifetime, would have been her daughter, out to meet the others.

As Zee got outside, she knew that the movie spell had once again taken effect, as she saw before her seven horses, and, sitting on some of them, her motley band of companions - Kid Eternity, a boy who could summon heroes with his magic word; John Constantine, this world's version of her ex-boyfriend, with flames covering half his body; Joe, the son of this world's late hero Superman; and there, at the front, Tamara sat, her cowboy hat pushed back, and a grin on her face.

"So, sister, we better get movin' if we're to get to Metropolis in time."

Zee didn't answer, resolutely ignoring Tamara, but instead just said her goodbyes to Sindella, as the Elmer Bernstein music started to play in the background, and then she started to saddle up, as Basil leapt to another vacant horse.

"Remember," shouted Sindella, "once you're outside of Smallville, you're no longer protected from the Kryptonians, so don't do any magic or they'll find you."

Tamara looked over at her boyfriend, John Constantine, in dismay. "No more magic," she said in disgust. "I guess this is my last chance then." And with that she waved her fingers, and the horses magically turned into Harleys, and the sounds of Bernstein were suddenly replaced with Steppenwolf.

Zatanna frowned, as an alarmed Basil leapt back across to her, but that was soon forgotten as she heard her mother's shout over the roar of her engines, and a smile came to Zee's face and a tear to her eye.

"Good luck, daughter."

* * *

If she never saw another cornfield in her life, it would be too soon, Zatanna had thought to herself as she painfully removed herself from the Harley that she had been riding for the last two days.

The others didn't seem to have as much of a problem with the motorcycles, which irritated her even more. In fact, she had found that ever since her 'sister' had shown up, irritability had become her best friend.

"How much longer until we get to Keystone?" she asked.

Constantine looked at her with confusion. "Keystone? Never heard of it; Central City is our first stop, and it's probably one more day, if that."

"Terrific," Zee mumbled.

"Problems, little sister?" Tamara asked innocently, batting her eyelashes and smiling sweetly.

"Only one," Zatanna replied tartly.

"Ladies, do we have to go through this every time we stop?" Kid Eternity asked as he walked between them.

"Why do you care?" Zee asked.

"Cause I want to make sure I keep getting front row seats. You know how hot it is to watch two gorgeous sisters going at it. Yowza!"

Both ladies turned on him with faces that said a thousand words. Kid coughed uncomfortably and suddenly found something shiny on the ground that seemed much more interesting.

"Perhaps we should continue a bit further. There's still some daylight left, and the further we get today, the closer we'll be to Central City," John Constantine said.

Zatanna gave him a withering look, but said nothing. None of this was making her happy anymore. What had started out as a bizarre, but entertaining, adventure had turned sour rather quickly with the appearance of her half-sister. The idea that she may finally be close to finding her father was the only thing keeping her going. She also admitted to herself that seeing her mother again, or someone who resembled her mother in every way, hurt more than she wanted to admit.

They got back on the bikes, and as they took off to the sounds of Simon and Garfunkel's "America", she had to admit that, everything else aside, this adventure was creating a kick-ass soundtrack.

It was nearly two hours before they pulled over again, and Zatanna's mood had gotten worse. Not only was she now unhappy with her traveling companions, and the motorcycle that was hurting her… pride, it appeared that they were once again in black and white. This had turned her mood very gray.

"I'm thinking this might be a good time to call it a night. There's a motel up the hill there, and it's starting to rain. I'd call that fate," John said.

Zee heard the crack of thunder, the blaze of lightning across the sky, and then the downpour of rain struck them. She had to admit that he was right as she turned her attention to the motel on the hill. It was oddly familiar, and looked more like an old three-story home than it did a motel.

"As long as it has running water, I guess," she mumbled. "I need a shower, badly."

It hit her like a ton of bricks! Black and white… rainy night… creepy-looking motel… and a terrible desire to take a shower; she knew exactly where they were, and what movie they were now in!

"_teG su ot lartneC ytiC tsaf!_" she said, wiggling her fingers. She felt the disorientation as the ground left her feet and she felt as though she were falling. Then they all reappeared at the outskirts of Central City.

"What are you doing?" asked Tamara.

"Saving us from a Psycho," Zee snapped back.

"But we could have handled a psycho," screamed Tamara. "Now, we're all dead."

* * *

Elsewhere, high above Metropolis, Ennio Morricone music began to play as a magician walked into a sparsely-decorated room.

Two men sat at a table, but on seeing the man walking in, they leaped to their feet and stared at him, ready in case of his magic. They knew that here, due to a protective spell, harmful magic couldn't affect them, but that was only thanks to the gaunt figure standing before them.

The magician stood there, his eyes staring between one pair of Kryptonian eyes and then another. Their eyes were glowing red, but he waited, and waited, and finally their eyes returned to their normal color.

"What is it, old man?" Zod finally asked the magician, his lips not quite in sync with his dubbed voice.

There was another silence, one that stretched on for seconds and then minutes as they all continued staring at each other, none of them blinking.

Suddenly Jax-Ur's newly-acquired Mexican accent broke the silence. "Zod doesn't like to ask twice," he growled, and then, accompanied by a spit, he added the derisory word, "Magician".

As the silence returned, and harsh yellow sunlight started to pour into the room, a single trickle of sweat appeared on the magician's forehead, and then began to trickle down his face, and finally he said the word he had to say, "Magic."

Jax-Ur burst out laughing. Magic? It had to be a joke. When was the last time that magic had been a problem? And then he saw the look on the magician's face and the laughter stopped.

"Magic?" asked Zod, ignoring his fellow Kryptonian, Jax-Ur, and taking a step forward toward the magician. "Where? Who? Show me."

And then the magician said his spell - both of the Kryptonians listening to his every syllable in case he tried to betray them - and suddenly an image appeared before them of a group of young people with motorbikes who'd just appeared in Central City, but, like the magician, the Kryptonians' attention was solely focused on one face.

"So much like his grandfather," said Zod, as his mind recalled events from long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away.

* * *

They had been led into the private office of Jor-El on a very important day. Zod, Faora, and Jax-Ur were all bound together in chains. Jor-El sat behind his crystal desk, his white hair slicked back.

"The prisoners, sir," one of his men said.

Jor-El looked them over with something akin to disdain. "You come before me on this very special day, the day of my son's birth, and you stand before my family as an affront to everything our people represent."

Zod said nothing, giving him his own cold stare. Jor-El did not scare him in the least. Indeed, the fact that this powerful man talked as if he had a handful of marbles in his mouth repulsed him.

Jor-El rubbed his cheek with the back of his hand, examining the three enemies of the people before him. They had said nothing in their defense, just gazed at him in open defiance.

Finally Jor-El spread his arms out, as if his decision was not up to him at all. "There is nothing more that I can do. For the crimes against your people, you are condemned to sleep with the Phantoms for the remaining time of your life."

This was the only comment that got a response from the trio. As Faora and Jax-Ur shouted in protest, Zod's eyes flashed in shock that quickly turned to anger. "You will pay for this, someday, Jor-El! The House of El will suffer for generations. Do you hear me… GENERATIONS!!"

Jor-El said nothing else, but waved his hand, dismissing them all as they were dragged from his office, screaming profanities at him.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Central City, Tamara was in the middle of screaming profanities at Zatanna, who'd just inadvertently alerted the Kryptonians to their presence.

Zee, wishing to avoid killing her half-sister for the time being, just bit her tongue, trying to ignore Tamara, and instead stared around at her surroundings, trying to figure a way out of their predicament.

As her eyes looked at the faces of her other companions, most of them as scared as she was, she noticed that they were watching the skies that were suddenly becoming filled with specks of gray.

Tamara suddenly stopped her tirade against Zee, and also looked up to see the black-clad figures congregating there. "Great, they're coming for us."

Zee looked at the fear in the faces of John Constantine and Joe, a sharp contrast to the carefree, slightly bemused look on the face of Kid Eternity, and the smile on the face of Tamara, who, although outnumbered, was determined not to go down without a fight. Zee then looked over to the statue to their left - a monument to the Flash, a hero who'd died on this world back in 1961 - and was reminded that on this world heroes did die and they never came back.

"Welcome to Central City," she mumbled to herself, as the Kryptonians came closer and closer to them, smashing through Tamara's defenses, and then, thinking about the Flash, a thought came to Zatanna's mind. "Maybe we can outrun them," she said, looking at Joe.

"But they're Kryptonians as well," he pointed out matter-of-factly, his eyes still looking at the Kryptonians, coming towards them faster and faster, their eyes starting to blaze, and Joe wondered how many seconds they had left.

"Well, we'll obviously need a head start," she said, although she could barely be heard through the sound of Kryptonian screams as Tamara used her magic to lash out at as many of their attackers as she could, exploiting their weakness. "tropsnarT su ot oleloT," screamed Zatanna, noticing the Kryptonian fists flying straight towards her face.

Suddenly, those fists were no more as Zee and her companions found that their surroundings had changed.

"Holy Toledo," said John Constantine, mopping his fiery brow. "Glad to be out of there."

"Just when I was starting to have fun," said Tamara, a glint in her eye. "We could have taken them together, Sis. You know we could."

Zatanna frowned, because she knew her half-sister was right. If Zee could eradicate her world of Bizarros, then ridding this world of Kryptonians would just be a matter of some carefully chosen words... but Zatanna wasn't ready to say those words.

Suddenly Zatanna's thoughts were interrupted by Kid Eternity. "Hate to point out the obvious, but won't they just find us again now that your magic spell's brought us here."

"Well, Joe better get us out of here fast then," said Zee. "First, a quick concealment spell to prevent any satellite tracking of him," she added, followed by the necessary magic words. "Now, Joe just has to carry us."

"Carry us all!?" exclaimed Tamara. "What, are you going to shrink us all and put us in that top hat of yours? What movie's that from."

"No, maybe I'll store our motorbikes in there, but I had different plans for our voyage," replied Zatanna. "Something a bit more fantastic."

And so it was that a minute later, as the Kryptonians received orders that the magic users had been detected in Toledo, Joseph Kent was already leaving Toledo, heading East as fast as his Kryptonian legs would carry him, along with his companions, who had been injected into his bloodstream.

Finally, tired and fatigued, but now a safe distance from Toledo, Joe, now sweating, stopped in Erie, by a lake. Mainly, it has to be said, because it looked like a groovy spot for a kooky party. Taking off his shirt, and stripping down to his Hawaiian trucks, he sat down, and rested his head on the ground, and then his companions emerged from his mouth wearing sixties-style beachwear.

As the spell reversed itself and the group was once again their regular size, John found a surf board sitting on the shore.

"Far out!" he exclaimed as he grabbed it. "Catch you cats later; I'm going to hang ten."

As John swam the board out into the lake, puzzling Joe who could see no waves at all, he also was impressed that the side of John's body that was aflame never went out.

Zee couldn't stop her thoughts or her actions as she ran to her half-sister. "That Johnny is so cute. I really think he digs you."

"You think? Tamara asked with a little giggle.

"Uh huh. If you want, I could ask Joey to ask Johnny if he likes you?"

Tamara looked at her a bit puzzled; she was being played by her own spell. That was so uncool. "Uhhh, no, that's alright. Johnny is far out and all, but I think we need to focus on our journey."

"Sure, good idea. Hey! Let's start a bonfire!"

* * *

As Zee and her sister began to collect driftwood, the upbeat and really happening music that was surrounding them, suddenly stopped. Nobody seemed to notice but Zatanna, who paid very little attention, until she heard the new music:

**DA DUM**

She stopped as something in the back of her mind began to stir. That seemed awfully familiar, but she couldn't quite…

**DA DUM**

It came again and she knew! She knew what it meant. She ran to the edge of the water. "Get out! Get out of the water now!" she screamed in horror.

Joe and John both looked at her in puzzlement. Why was she waving her hands so frantically?

"Shark! There's a shark in the water!"

"She's flipped her bloody lid," Constantine said as he bobbed on the surface. "We're not in an ocean; this is a lake. Your girlfriend is daft, mate."

"She's not my…" Joe stopped as he saw what looked like a fin beginning to come towards them; a green fin. "SHARK!" he screamed as he swam to shore with the speed of lightning.

John Constantine looked behind him and saw the same thing. His eyes widened in panic as he began to swim back as quick as he could. He saw the rest of the gang at the edge of the lake, screaming his name and urging him to swim faster. He felt a large wave strike him from behind, and turned around long enough to see that the green fin had risen, and was now coming out of the water, followed my a huge pasty-white head.

He just made it to the beach, scrambling across the sand to join his mates as they all watched the green-hooded, white-faced giant, rising out of Lake Erie and coming towards them.

"The Spectre," Zee gasped.

As he reached the shore, his body grew even larger, towering over them like an eight-story building. "I am the Spectre," he growled in a thunderous roar.

But Zatanna did not hear his words, for the face of the Spectre had taken her totally by surprise. She was looking into the face of a former teammate, someone she thought she would never see again.

"Adrian?" she gasped.

But the spirit of vengeance ignored her as he continued, "I have come to pass judgment. You have left the protection of Smallville, and in doing so, are no longer protected from my wrath."

Zatanna turned to Tamara, knowing full well who he was talking about, only to watch her turn to Joe. _Like even he could help you from this guy,_ she thought.

Seeing that Joe was standing in awe, unable to move, Tamara raised her arms, her fingers working an intricate pattern. When nothing happened, she shrunk back at the Spectre's hollow laugh.

"Your magic can not work in my presence."

As The Spectre took a step forward, Zee looked at Kid Eternity. "Quick, Kid, summon up The Ghostbusters."

Kid Eternity looked confused. "I don't know what the Kid Eternity of your world can do, but I can't just summon up made-up characters. Only dead people, and none are as powerful as The Spectre," he said.

"But we can't let him kill Tamara," Zee pleaded, amazed that the words were actually coming out of her mouth.

The Spectre laughed. "I have not come for Tamara. She did not take all of those lives."

"He's here for Joe," said Tamara, taking a step back. "Do what you have to do."

The Spectre laughed again. "He is but an innocent. It is Zatanna for whom I have come - a woman who made an entire race extinct without a moment's remorse."

Zatanna looked at him in confusion, and then realization. "But... Adrian... they were Bizarros. They were going to kill the heroes," she said in a hushed voice.

"They had minds. They had thoughts. They strived to understand, but you ended all that," he said. "You must pay the ultimate price."

And with that The Spectre loomed down on her, and bullet holes started to appear on her body like stigmata.

Joe realized the full horror of what was about to happen; bracing himself for a fight that he knew he could never win, when the silence was broken with one word:

"Eternity."

Suddenly The Spectre vanished, the bullet holes stopped appearing, and Zee fell to the ground. Tamara rushed over and Zee looked up one last time - had her half-sister come to gloat? But no, Tamara spoke some words and the bullet holes started to disappear.

"You can't die. We've got to rescue our father," Tamara whispered to her. _You can't die until then._

"Where... where did The Spectre go?" asked Zee, looking around in confusion.

"Well there was only one person I could bring back to life to stop him," said Kid Eternity, and pointed to the man he'd summoned from the grave: Adrian Chase.

* * *

As Adrian Chase stood there, in a pair of green swimming trunks, surveying those around him, the District Attorney was, to say the least, confused. One minute, he'd been looking forward to getting home to meet his pregnant wife, Anabel; the next, his surroundings had changed to a lakeside scene, with all around him in swimwear, including a rabbit.

For a second, he started to doubt his sanity, but then, as the movie spell waned and they returned to their normal clothing, he felt a calming hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry," said the boy standing before him. "You won't remember everything that happened; they never do. I'll explain, but it'll take some time."

Tamara, knowing that time was something they didn't have a lot of, decided that now wasn't the time for tact. "On the other hand, Adrian, I could give you the condensed version, where your wife dies, you go psycho, then you die, and end up a spirit of vengeance."

Zatanna, seeing the shock on Adrian's face, forgot any gratefulness she might have felt towards Tamara for earlier saving her life. "Why, you heartless-"

"We've not got time for this, Sis. Adrian'll get over it, trust me. In the meantime, that magic I just used to save your life means the Kryptonians will know we're here." As shade fell over them, she pointed up to the Phantom Zone villains above, now lining the sky. "See!"

"_teG su tuo fo ereh,_" yelled Zee, as even more Kryptonians appeared, and was then surprised as her surroundings failed completely to transform around her.

"They're not going to fall for the same trick twice," Tamara yelled at her. "Their evil wizard's probably cast some transportation nullification spell to prevent us escaping that way again."

"_dluiB a dael ssertrof dnuora su!_" yelled Zee again, wiggling her fingers frantically as the Kryptonians approached.

Suddenly, walls leapt from the ground, surrounding Zee and her companions.

"You realize they can just rip through these walls," said Joe.

"I know," said Zee, "but we're magicians. They'll think it's a trap."

"But it's _not_ a trap," said John Constantine, peering through a window at the gathered army in their oh-so-black suits as they landed on the ground outside.

"And they've got super-hearing, so they now know it's not a trap," explained Tamara, punching John's flaming arm.

"But, we've got an army," said Joe, with a smile, as he turned towards Kid Eternity. "It's about time my old man showed up to help; maybe some of his pals."

Joe's smile disappeared as, suddenly, a blast of heat vision ripped straight through the wall and straight through Kid Eternity's throat. This was quickly followed by two more, cutting through the boy's falling body.

Zee kneeled down next to his body. "He wasn't supposed to die," she said. She then placed her hand over his eyes, and closed them for what would be the last time, as an invisible Mister Keeper looked on, fearful for what he knew would happen next.

Then, Kid Eternity's eyes opened again, and tears began to run from them.

Tamara kneeled down beside her. "He can't die," she explained. "They took him to Heaven once by mistake; ended up giving him powers and promising him immunity until his life was supposed to end."

"But he's dying," she said, holding his quaking body.

"Yeah, but it'll be years before they allow him to finish dying."

"Might as well be an eternity," chipped in Constantine. "He was our best hope, so they went straight for his vocal cords. Still, if they'd have left them intact, I guess we wouldn't be able to hear ourselves for his endless screaming."

As Mister Keeper sat there, trying to comfort his friend through pain that should have killed him, Zee tried to make sense of what had just happened. "But I made this thing of lead, just so they wouldn't be able to see us."

"Super-hearing," theorized John, giving a dirty look towards Joe. "Dirty Kryptonians must have pinpointed his heartbeat. They could have killed us all by now, but they're just toying with us."

Zee felt the helplessness and despair building inside her, and the power she'd stolen from her sister growing. She looked over at Adrian, and for the first time ever she believed she understood him.

"But they made a mistake," she said, purple orbs of energy appearing around her hands. "They made me angry."

"I can help you defeat them," said Joe, ready to help her in her fight.

"You?" said Tamara, laughing. "No, you and John need to keep Adrian safe. If he dies, the big white guy will be back and killing Zee in more gory ways than even the Kryptonians could come up with. Me and Zee are our best hope against the Kryptonians. They're vulnerable to magic; just a shame that there are hundreds of them out there and they move at super-speed."

"Hey, wait a minute!" said Zee, as they walked towards the door, magic ready.

"What?"

"You didn't see Zod out there, did ya?"

"Zod? No."

"Good. For a moment there, I thought we were in trouble," Zee replied, with a smile, as they reached the door, and then they both rushed out of the door together, their hands raised, glowing with power, to face the mass of Kryptonians gathered outside.

That was when everything froze.

* * *

The Kryptonians hung suspended in the air, and although Tamara had heard the freeze spell that her sister had cast, seeing over two dozen of her enemies hanging there was a bit startling at first. She quickly recovered.

With a malicious grin on her face, she cast a spell, the dark red power coming from her hands to strike one of the helpless Kryptonians, who then blew apart, pieces of him flying everywhere.

"Like shooting ducks from a barrel," she laughed gleefully as she fired off two more spells and watched two more enemies disintegrate before her.

"_No_!" Zatanna screamed in horror as she ran to tackle her sister. This was not what she wanted; it was not her plan.

Her sister turned to face her, stopping Zee dead in her tracks. "Oh come now, dear sister. I know you want to. I can feel the power inside of you, that dark side that has been lingering in you since you absorbed some of my energy. I can feel it; I can feel the conflict inside of you. Let it go, dear sister. Release the anger inside of you and feel the full power of the dark magic!" She extended her gloved hand to her sister as she spoke.

Tamara brought up her other hand and blasted away another enemy, to prove her point. She laughed as she watched the conflicting emotions inside of Zee, crossing the magician's face. She watched as Zatanna's hands began to tremble, and then Zee turned away from her sister, unsure of what to do.

"They took our father. They have spent years possible torturing him. They've destroyed all that was good in this world. The ghosts of the heroes in this world cry out for vengeance! Our _father_ screams for our help. Do not fight it, embrace it!"

Zatanna spun back around, her eyes blazing with the dark magic, as she began to fire spell after spell; joining her sister in the decimation of the Kryptonian attack squad. As Zee grinned with satisfaction, her sister laughed with glee at the sight of both of them eliminating their enemies so methodically, and in that moment, the two truly looked like the sisters that they were.

Joe poked his head out and witnessed the carnage, gasping at the sight. He went to move towards them, but a hand stopped him.

"You stop Tamara, I'll take care of Zee," Adrian Chase said.

As they moved into action, Joe tackled the blonde sister, keeping her hands away from his body as she desperately tried to fight him off.

Zatanna turned to help her sister, her eyes now crackling with the burgundy energy that she had so long been fighting. As she raised her hands, she was caught unprepared as Adrian stepped in front of her.

"Don't do this, Zee," he pleaded. "Vengeance is not ours to dish out. You know that. Justice should be our goal. Look at me! Look at what I became, both before and after I died. Fight this… stop this… now, while you still can."

She hesitated, raised her hands again, and then looked into Adrian's eyes. Memories swept through her. Adrian on video, killing the D.A. on her world; Helena's pain as she so desperately tried to stop him.

Zee brought her arms down, and the fire in her eyes abated. Adrian could see that she was exhausted and ashamed, but she didn't give herself time to rest. She hurriedly made her way to her sister and put her boot at her sister's throat.

"No more," she commanded.

Tamara stopped struggling and stared up at Zee with a wild look in her eyes, which slowly faded. "Father would be so disappointed in you," she sneered.

"I don't think so."

Joe got up and released Tamara who continued to stare at her sister. "So what do you think we should do, little one?"

"They're still frozen, I've made sure time has slowed down. We make our escape and continue on."

"I'd like to second that plan," John Constantine said as he sauntered out to join them.

Tamara rolled her eyes, "Alright, if that's the consensus. Onward."

With time still moving at a slow pace, they continued their travels, but Zatanna's journey had now reached a turning point. The power that she now had in her was turning her stomach. It was not who she wanted to be; she was _not_ her sister! The evil that lay inside of Tamara was not acquired from their father… it just couldn't be. It had to be whoever her mother was. It just _had_ to be. But as they neared New York City, the doubt was growing in the back of her mind.

As they entered the remains of what was once considered this world's largest concrete jungle, Zatanna was taken aback at the total destruction of the place. Skyscrapers were destroyed and getting through many of the streets was like climbing over concrete mountains.

"Unbelievable," Adrian muttered.

"What happened here?" Zee asked. "King Kong?"

"Close," Tamara replied as they stood at the end of what was once Battery Park, at the southwestern tip of Manhattan Island. Laying there in the grass was the head of the Statue of Liberty. "Their pet did this."

"Their pet?"

"Beppo," Tamara replied.

"That damn dirty ape," John Constantine muttered.

* * *

"They've got a pet gorilla?" asked Zee.

"No, just a pet monkey," replied Tamara, "well at least at first. But they could only change the green kryptonite to iron. As for that red stuff, kind of unpredictable. Stuff like that you want to test on animals first."

"That's horrific," exclaimed Zee.

"But he loved the stuff," said John. "Searched it out. Couldn't get enough of it. Better than humans even."

Suddenly, they heard an unearthly howl in the distance.

"Maybe we better get out of here," suggested Zatanna.

"Good idea, Sis," said Tamara, climbing back onto her bike, and seconds later they were riding as quickly as they could through the torn-up landscape and out of New York. And so, heading South towards Gotham, they started to put some much-needed distance between themselves and the city that was now referred to as The Big Banana.

Finally, after a few hours of traveling, with their motorbikes almost run out of gas, they decided to stop and set up camp for the night.

"Are you okay, Adrian?" Zee asked the mortal formerly known as The Spectre.

"Not sure," he replied, looking into the flickering flames of John Constantine. "Still, could be worse. Guess I should be grateful I'm not on fire."

"Rub it in, why don't you?" said Constantine. "I'm just grateful I've not got daddy issues."

While Zee, Joe and Tamara stared daggers at John, Adrian unpacked the spare tent - the one that Kid Eternity had been using - and wondered if he'd be able to get any sleep after what had happened.

While the others continued to sit around the campfire (or at least a makeshift one called John), Zee decided that, after the day she'd had, she wanted to be alone, so set up her tent, in that tiresome manual non-magic way she'd been forced to get used to.

Lying down in the same clothes that she'd been wearing for days now, the movie spell keeping them spotlessly clean, she tried to get to sleep, but her mind kept going back to Kid Eternity's 'death', not to mention the lurid tales about Beppo's misdemeanors that Tamara had insisted on telling everybody during the journey. Then, just as she was finally beginning to nod off, a shadow fell across Zee's tent, and then somebody... or something... started to enter. As Zee's imagination began to run wild, she saw that it was just Joe.

"Sorry if I scared you," he said. "Or woke you," he added, noticing that she looked like she'd just been sleeping.

"No, that's alright," she said, pushing herself up to a sitting position. "After what happened to Kid today, I was just going to have nightmares anyway."

"You too, huh?" a worried Joe said, crouching down beside her, and then he continued, "Anyway, sorry to interrupt your sleep, but I guess it was John's mention of 'daddy issues'. I need you to help me."

"What with?"

"I want to know what happened to my father," explained Joe. "I asked Tamara and she just laughed. I thought maybe you could help me."

"Well, I'd like to help," she said, "but I can't use magic, and all I know about his death was a brief flashback I experienced while talking to Jimmy Olsen."

"I can take you there," he said, "to the Fortress of Solitude. We can look for clues."

"How?" said Zee. "It must be miles away, and do you even know where it is."

"I've been there before," he said, as his strong arms picked her up, and then he carried her out of the tent.

While Zee looked at Joe, wondering whether he planned to run all of the way to the Fortress, Joe looked down at Tamara and John sat there, their conversation halting as they saw Joe.

"Don't wait up, kids," the super-son said, and then he launched into the sky.

"But I thought you said you couldn't fly," observed Zatanna, catching her breath as she looked into the night sky.

" I couldn't, but since I left Smallville I seem to have grown stronger. Maybe all of that magic was making me weak."

"Then again, maybe it's just that the movie spell's back," suggested Zee, as Joe had to suddenly zigzag in the sky to avoid a nanny with an umbrella followed by a vintage flying car.

"Who cares," said Joe, grateful to be unshackled by gravity. "I can fly! I can fly! I can fly!"

"So, do you remember where this Fortress is?"

"That's easy," said Joe, pointing with his free arm. "The second star to the right, and straight on till morning."

"Should have guessed," mumbled Zee, as she gripped tightly to Joe, wary that the movie spell might suddenly change and leave her in a disaster movie. But her fears were unfounded as they rushed over seas and mountains and arctic tundra, Joe's face gleeful as he soared along tracing the route father must have taken, and finally, as they passed through time zones and night changed to day, they came across a large slightly-ajar metal door in the side of a mountain.

Slowing down, Joe flew through the gap in the door, and then landed gracefully, setting Zatanna down. Zatanna looked behind her, at the vast expanse of arctic wilderness outside, and then forwards into the darkness of the Fortress of Solitude.

"Wish I could use my magic to light this place up," she said, and then, as she stepped forward, the Fortress of Solitude suddenly lit up, as automatic lighting, unused for years, flickered on, revealing all manner of items. All Joe saw was the bloodstain on the floor and the letters carved there by his father's hand.

"It's not changed," said Joe, catching his breath.

"Probably been preserved all of these years," said Zee, her breath visible in the cold arctic air, as she looked around. "Don't worry, Joe," she said. "I'll figure out what happened. I've seen lots of magic tricks, but always figured out how they were done. Plus, hanging around with Barbara Gordon all of this time has to have helped."

Just as Joe was about to ask who Barbara Gordon was, his attention was suddenly distracted.

"Master? Master, is that you?" came his father's voice from somewhere in the distance.

Suddenly Joe was gone, faster than Zee could see, so she started walking in the direction that the voice had come from, through an interplanetary zoo, and suddenly everything became dark, as she reached a section where the lights had finally stopped working. As she made her way through the darkness slowly, wondering what alien creature or plant might suddenly pounce out at her, she continued towards the sound of Joe's voice and finally came across another area of light, where Joe was standing, talking to the disembodied head of a Superman robot.

"Who did this to you?" he asked.

"Sorry, master," spluttered the robot, it's head twitching spasmodically. "Memory cells damaged. Will you rebuild me?"

Joe looked at the robot with pity, and then walked back towards the entrance of the Fortress, trying to ignore the repeated pleadings of "Master? Master?" from the robot he couldn't help.

As Zee followed after him, she looked down at the words scrawled on the floor.  
Well, rather the one word RAO, written over and over again.

"Rao, the Kryptonian God," said Joe, explaining it to Zee, just in case she didn't know.

"So, why would he write God?" thought Zee aloud.

"It rhymes with Zod," suggested Joe in desperation. "Then again, I guess my father would have just written Zod if that was the case."

"And he wouldn't have written it over and over," Zee added. "Maybe it's the number of RAOs that's the key. Come on, Zee, this must be easy. Why would he leave a clue if he thought nobody could solve it?"

Joe just watched Zee, staring intently at the words written on the floor, but, no matter how much she stared at them, she never got any closer to understanding their meaning.

Joe knew the feeling. He'd first seen the words over thirty years ago, and he'd thought about them every day since, but was still no closer to any answers.

* * *

They traveled as best they could for the next few days, Zee's thoughts constantly going back to the word they had found in the Fortress: **RAO**

The evening before they would arrive in Gotham, they set up camp and began the nightly routine that they had grown accustomed to. Even Adrian Chase had joined in the routine, though he spent most of his time in quiet solitude.

"What are we going to do with him?" Constantine asked the sisters as they watched him gathering kindling for the fire that John would eventually start. "With Kid Eternity out of the picture, we can't send him back to the heavens…"

"Well, technically, we could," Tamara mused.

"You disgust me," Zatanna said.

"And here I thought we were finally bonding… like real sisters."

"Ladies, please," John sighed, cutting off the inevitable cat fighting that had also become a nightly routine.

"I'll take care of it," Zatanna said, ending the conversation as she walked away. "Need help?" she asked Adrian as she approached him.

"Thank you, but no. I think this should do it for the night." He stood with his arms full of wood and just stared at her.

"Adrian… where we're going… we think it would be best… I mean…"

He nodded, already understanding. "I was going to part ways in Gotham, anyway. I don't belong here." He hesitated, obviously fighting back words that came tumbling out, anyway. "I don't really belong anywhere, anymore."

Zee's heart broke at the pain in his statement. "You do belong, Adrian, you do! I know the pain is there and I wish I could take it away for you, but you have a purpose. You wouldn't be here if you didn't."

"Yeah, I'm trying to believe that myself. Can you answer me a question? Did _they_ suffer?"

The magician shook her head. "No, they didn't. They never even saw it coming."

Adrian nodded, his eyes watering. "I have little memory of any of it."

"That's probably a good thing," she said and he grunted an agreement and walked back to the camp. As she watched him she couldn't help but wonder if Adrian Chase was made to suffer in every world, every alternate timeline, that lay out there.

The next day they said their goodbyes to Adrian, and Zee hugged him fiercely. "You are a good person, Adrian; don't let loss blacken your heart."

After they had separated on the outskirts of town, Joe turned to the remaining members of the party. "Where do we go from here?"

"You mean now that all of the children are growing up?" Constantine quipped.

"Huh?"

"Never mind; we're going to the _cave_."

Zee turned to John in surprise. "You know where the _cave_ is?"

"Of course I know where the _cave_ is. Doesn't everybody?"

She didn't reply as they headed in the direction of stately Wayne Manor.

It took only seconds for John to find a rather large cave entrance with nothing more than vines covering it, and an old, dilapidated wooden barricade.

"This is how he hid it?" Zee asked in shock.

"Rather campy, if you ask me," Tamara remarked as she led the pack into the dark cavern.

After reaching the center of the cave, they were amazed to find the computers still working, as well as the lights. Leave it to _him_ to have several backup generators. Probably enough to run the place for at least twenty years.

As they separated, Zee began to work on the computer system. She had learned much from her time with her best friend Barbara, and she couldn't help but get a thrill out of cracking some of the codes. Of course, it was easier here, since everything seemed to be labeled: Bat-Computer, Bat-Spectrogram, even the coffee pot read: Bat-Coffee.

As Zee searched the obscenely easy files, poring over pictures of an old crime scene, her mind raced between the Fortress, the pictures, and what was appearing on the "Bat-computer". Suddenly it hit her like a ton of bricks. "I know who did it! He wrote it down!"

"Yeah, so do I," replied Tamara. "You should have just asked. Don't tell Joe, though. I'll have to wipe it from his mind again." She rolled her eyes. "Anyway, don't waste your time with that," moaned Tamara. "Metropolis next stop, our father awaits."

And with that, Tamara left a confused Zee behind.

* * *

Half an hour later they were on their way from Gotham City to Metropolis, still all on motorbikes, since none of them were over trustful of Joe's new-found power of flight.

Zatanna looked over her shoulder towards Joe riding behind her. She wanted to tell him about what she'd finally figured out in the Batcave, but her mind was more occupied with what Tamara had said, and with wondering why it was they would need to keep the revelation from Joe. Then again, maybe Zee had got the murderer wrong. She looked over at Tamara, who just smiled back at her.

"Anything wrong?" Joe asked, seeing the look on Zatanna's face.

"Yeah, Sis," added Tamara. "Anything you want to share?"

"No, nothing," Zee said, turning her eyes fully back to the road.

For a second, she had thought about getting everything out into the open, but, assuming Tamara was right, she didn't want to risk hurting Joe. Still she had to have answers, she thought, and cut her speed back, pulling her bike in next to Tamara's.

"Why mustn't Joe know about his father's murderer?" she hissed in Tamara's ear, hoping the sound of the engines would mask their conversation from Joe's super-hearing.

Tamara just looked at Zee, and mimed zipping her lips. Much to her surprise, a real zip appeared over her lips; well not exactly a real zip, but a painted one. This was kind of surreal, she thought, as she looked over at Zee and saw her long black painted hair and animated face with its bright red pop art lips. This wasn't exactly the movie Tamara had hoped would come along - she was really waiting for The Parent Trap - but it looked like this would be mildly diverting as they rode down the psychedelic highway on their mission to find her father.

Suddenly, as giant green apples rained down from the sky, they steered their animated bikes to avoid them. Unfortunately, Constantine got hit by one of the apples and fell into a slumber as his bike continued forwards into some giant letters that had sprung up at the side of the road spelling _Zee_, and then another set, and then another.

"John, what are you playing at?" asked Tamara, unzipping her mouth, and much surprised to find a Liverpudlian accent emerging.

"Just catching some Zees," replied a droll Constantine, surprised to find that he was now wearing glasses and a band uniform.

"Hey, everyone, isn't it about time we had a musical number?" asked Zee, as her top hat suddenly leapt up to find Basil pirouetting beneath it.

From there, it was only a second before trumpets were playing and the gang found their motorbikes gone as they marched down the kaleidoscopic road before them, playing the instruments that had suddenly appeared from nowhere. It was kind of embarrassing, but they sure covered a lot of distance, and by the time the song had finished they found themselves outside Metropolis, their band uniforms still intact.

"Well, at least these will act as some kind of disguise," offered Joe, at which point, naturally, the clothes faded, to be replaced by their everyday, albeit spotless, clothes.

"You had to speak," said Tamara, and then she saw the rest of Metropolis as it turned from a bright cartoon vision to a desolated apocalypse. There, across the street from them, was an old man, standing outside a dilapidated building, a broken half planet perched on top of it.

Tamara looked in surprise at the remains of the Daily Planet, and then ran across to the old man, "Is it true what I heard," she asked, "that the Kryptonians took over this building as their main headquarters."

"Great Caesar's Ghost, it's true," said the man, a tear in his eye, and then he meandered into song, as darkness suddenly descended and only his bright red lips could be seen.

_Lois Lane was sad the day the world turned mad, and the heroes all fell down  
Superman no longer there in red underwear  
No Green Lantern, no Batman  
And things want all wrong for Flash and J'onn J'onzz  
They got killed like that Amazon dame  
And with no heroes alive, we couldn't survive  
And the planet just changed its name  
Like a-_

As Perry White launched into his chorus, Zatanna and Tamara just walked past him.

"Typical, wait for a song, then two turn up at once," moaned Constantine, as he and Joe took their positions behind the former editor of the Daily Planet, ready to provide backup vocals for his next song.

Zee looked back at John and Joe standing there, and realized that herself and Tamara now seemed immune to the movie spell. "So, you are behind all of this," she said to Tamara.

"Well, duh! Of course I am," said Tamara. "Now let's get into the Planet before a storm starts and we're stuck out in the rain."

As Perry launched into yet another song, declaring, "Damnit, Planet, I love you," Tamara and Zee entered into the building, only to have a lift descend before them.

Zee and Tamara exchanged looks, both having an inkling of what was coming, as the lift opened and a curly-haired man in a basque and stockings came out and started singing to them about his dressing preferences and where he came from.

"Can't we stop this spell now?" asked Zee. "I've had enough of this schlocky horror."

"You're no fun," said Tamara, as the guy flung his wig towards her.

"Lex Luthor," gasped Zee.

"Who'd you expect?" asked Tamara. "The President? No, Lex is just some guy who once owned Metropolis. The Kryptonians taking over the place just sent him over the edge."

"So, what's he doing here?" asked Zee.

Tamara shrugged. "No idea. Looks like the Kryptonians have left this headquarters and found a new one."

"You really want to know what I'm doing here?" asked Lex, his tortured eyes looking at the new arrivals.

* * *

The room they were in had suddenly gone dark, lit only by unseen flames that created shadows along the wall. A rather portly and slow-moving Lex made his way to a small cot, where he sat and brought out a wooden bowl with water in it.

"Fear… war… the end of all that is, or was. I tried. I led the fight, to no avail." He was mumbling his words, as if speaking to himself as much as the sisters. He submerged his cupped hands into the bowl, bringing up a handful of water that he poured over the back of his bald head.

"It is impossible, in words, to describe what is necessary, to those who do not know what horror means," he reflected as he saw a cockroach crawling on his table. He picked it up as almost an afterthought and bit into it.

"Horror… horror has a face… and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends – If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared." He swallowed the insect, the light from the flames casting dark shadows on his face. "They are truly enemies."

The sisters shifted uncomfortably. Even after they all they had seen, this was becoming a bit too surreal for even the two of them.

Lex continued, "I remember, when the war first broke out; it seems like centuries ago, we had come together, all of us, the ideals of moral right and wrong no longer existing. Only the horror of extermination, of terror… was bringing us together as one. We attempted to save the children, inoculating them with a kryptonite derivative that we hoped would keep them safe. But they found out or plans and they came… and they cut off all of their arms. And… and I remember, looking upon that pile of arms… those little arms… piled together…"

Zee shuddered as she watched Lex's face, staring past them, for he was no longer in the present.

"And I… I wept… like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out… I didn't know what I wanted to do. But I never wanted to forget it. And then I realized, like I was shot… shot with a diamond – a diamond bullet, right through my forehead. And I thought, my God… the genius of that. The genius, the will to do that. Perfect. Genuine. Complete, crystalline… pure…"

"Then I realized that they were stronger than we, because we fought with our hearts, while they fought as monsters, while our lives were filled with family and children. And they had the strength… the _strength_, to do that. If I had had just ten men like that… ten who had that strength… without judgment, perhaps we would have won. Judgment… you see… it is judgment that defeats us…"

He said nothing else, as he lay down upon his cot, the flames causing him to appear and disappear in the shadows. He lay there, staring at the ceiling, never blinking.

"Horror…" he muttered one last time.

It was Tamara who actually backed away first, taking her sister's arm gently and pulling her along, out of the room.

They said nothing as they made their way back to the others.

* * *

As they emerged out of the building Zee still couldn't get Luthor out of her mind, or the atrocities that the Kryptonians had perpetrated that had turned him from a genius into a madman.

With Tamara rushing to keep up with her, she marched on over to Perry White, who'd now thankfully fallen silent.

"Where are the Kryptonians?" she demanded.

"Look to the skies," he said, and flung the yellowing rolled-up newspaper he had in his hand up into the air.

"_wohS su erehw yeht era!_" demanded Tamara and suddenly the spiraling rolled-up newspaper transformed into a giant dark spherical satellite, perched amongst the stars.

Zatanna looked at the mystical picture of the satellite, high up in the sky, and let out a sigh as she realized that her journey to find her father was only just beginning.

"I've got a bad feeling about this."


	4. Revenge of the Sis

**_Chapter Four - Revenge of the Sis_**

_**Now:**_

Nothing but blackness; it enveloped the room, a room filled with silence. Then a single light was turned on – a spotlight, shining onto the magician, her top hat set perfectly on her head, her legs crossed as she sat in a chair. Her demeanor was calm, collected. In fact, to look at her, she appeared nearly bored.

As the light came on, she rolled her eyes and reached out into the thin air, plucking a cigarette out of nowhere. "So, gentlemen, do you have any questions, or are you just here for a gander at the fishnets?"

The room was full of men, all hidden in the shadows that stayed at the edges of the room. One Kryptonian was standing closer. He was larger than the others, and he stared intently at the cigarette.

"Relax, big guy, that wasn't real magic; nothing more than a simple trick. Give me the spotlight and I just can't seem to help myself. You don't happen to have a light, do you?"

Zatanna watched as the large Kryptonian began to strain, his eyes focusing intently on the tip of her cigarette. As hard as he tried, he just couldn't seem to do it.

The tobacco stick suddenly lit up as another man stepped forward, his eyes blazing red. "Enough of this!" Zod said as he stepped into the light, impatience obvious in his face.

"Where is she?" he demanded.

Zatanna inhaled on her cigarette slowly and blew two smoke rings that turned into smoke doves and flew away. "Where's who?" she asked innocently.

"Tamara," hissed Zod.

"Please, that pretender," Zatanna scoffed as she flicked her cigarette onto the floor and crushed it beneath her heel. "I killed that bitch."

* * *

_**Then:**_

Earlier that same day, a band of companions were standing outside what remained of the Daily Planet building, discussing how to infiltrate the dark satellite that was the Kryptonian headquarters.

Tamara said a few magic words, while waving a few magic fingers, and suddenly glowing plans for the satellite appeared in the air in front of them.

While the others gazed at those plans, stunned by their alien complexity, Joseph Kent, the son of the late Superman, was using his super-quick mind to assimilate the data. "You know that every structure has a weak point somewhere?" he began, and then noticed the expectant faces of his fellow travelers staring back at him. "Well, this appears to be the exception."

Zatanna, slightly disgruntled at Joe's revelation, was not prepared to give up so easily.

"Can't we just use our magic to attack their satellite?" she suggested.

Tamara shook her head. "No, they'll have a spell to prevent the use of magic to harm that satellite or any of its inhabitants. Still, the magic we've used so far should have alerted them to our position, so hopefully they'll be coming soon to arrest us and take us there."

"Or they may just kill us," added Constantine.

Following John's comment, the group fell into silence, a silence that was finally punctured by an idea of Joe's. "I could fly us there," he offered.

"Your flying could just be the movie spell affecting you," said a dismissive Tamara. "Almost beginning to wish I'd never cast the thing now."

"Can't change the past," said Zee, suddenly remembering how many times after her real mother's death she'd tried to do just that. "Wait a minute," she gasped, suddenly excited, "maybe we can."

"But there are no spells to do that," said Tamara.

"Not directly," replied Zee, "but maybe a combination of spells... naeroLeD raeppa!"

_And with those words, not unsurprisingly, a DeLorean suddenly appeared._

_  
"What? You really expect that to travel through time?" asked an incredulous Tamara._

"With your movie spell to help it, what else could it do?" she asked, as she opened a door to reveal the glowing 'Y' of the flux capacitor within. "Quick, everybody in!" she added, motioning them in.

"It'll never work," said Tamara, as she sat down in the passenger seat, Zee having beaten her to the driver's seat.

"Plus, it's a bit cramped," added John Constantine, as he and Joe also attempted to cram themselves into the two-seater vehicle.

"It was either this or a phone booth," said Zatanna, and then she, like all of her passengers, suddenly decided to don some sunglasses, and next felt the need to sum up the situation, "We're sitting in a DeLorean, we're going to the past, we've got a full supply of plutonium, John's half alight, it's getting dark, and we're wearing sunglasses."

"Hit it," said Tamara, but just as Zee was about to put her foot down on the accelerator, they all suddenly noticed the plastic cup on the dashboard, half full of water.

"So, is it half full or half empty?" asked Tamara.

Suddenly ripples appeared on the water's surface.

"Guess that would be half empty," observed John as the ground began to shake.

Zee looked in her wing mirror and saw a giant blue-and-red clad monkey pounding along towards her. "Beppo!" she gasped and slammed her foot down and the car lurched forward, but it was too late, for the red-kryptonite-transformed super-monkey was smashing his fists on the ground, creating something akin to an earthquake, except more devastating.

The ground opened up in front of them, creating a huge chasm. As the car raced towards it, Zee hoped that it was James Bond time and somehow, against the odds, they'd make that leap. About halfway across, as the car plummeted down into an open chasm, she realized that wasn't going to happen.

All of a sudden, she found herself grasping Tamara's hand, or was it the other way around. She looked down at their joined hands, not sure if this way a way to share their last moments together, or for each to steal the magical power from the other.

None of that really mattered though, as she realized that they were no longer falling, but now rising into the air. Beppo looked on in astonishment as he saw the car, carried into the air by a lone figure, silhouetted against the moon.

"It's Joe," said Zatanna, realizing that he was no longer in the car, but now carrying it, as they soared up to the stars.

"King Kong doesn't look too happy about it," said John, seeing the roaring ape rushing up through the sky to intercept them. Just as Beppo flew in their way, Zee noticed that the speedometer was coming up to 88 mph.

The next nanosecond, Joe was back in the car, as lightning crackled around it, and in the next instant the car was no longer there, leaving just an enraged mutated Kryptonian monkey, howling in the sky, flaming tire tracks burning across his fur.

* * *

The _Present:_

The door opened as the last whiff of smoke disappeared from the crushed cigarette. A cloaked figure walked into the room. Zatanna couldn't help but smile, but that smile had an uncomfortable edge to it.

The man spoke. "Have they found Tamara yet?" he demanded.

"One more time, big guy, I killed her. Now, are we all up to date here?"

The cloaked figure took a step back, obviously stunned. "You're very blunt."

"Well, I was figuring with this movie spell just rolling right along, honesty was probably my best chance. The idea of Kryptonians dancing around to Stealer's Wheel while slicing my ear off just didn't feel like a scene I wanted played out."

The cloaked man stepped forward, into the spotlight. "You have no idea what movie you're actually in, do you?"

Zatanna's eyes grew wide as she saw the face beneath the hood. "I… I didn't… However, I think I'm catching on."

The man pulled back his hood. "I am your father."

* * *

_**October, 1956:**_

They were close to deadline and the majority of the Daily Planet reporters were pounding away on their typewriters. Meek mild-mannered Clark Kent, however, being able to type as fast as his keyboard would allow, had already finished and was sitting at his desk, listening to the clattering of keys around him. Suddenly, his super-hearing picked up a familiar shout outside, but not one he was used to hearing as Clark:

"Look! Up in the sky!"

Clark rose as casually as he could from his chair, not wishing to arouse Lois's suspicions, and stared out of the window. That's when he saw it: it wasn't a bird or a plane, but what appeared to be a strangely-shaped car, soaring through the air, down towards the crowds below.

He didn't have time to find a place to change, and the lives of those people below were more important to him than guarding his secret identity, so he walked straight up to the window, and grabbed his shirt, ready to pull that shirt open and reveal the 'S' symbol beneath.

"This looks like a job for-" he began, and then he stopped mid-sentence as he saw somebody familiar fly from out of the car and then fly beneath it, slowing down its descent. "Me?" he concluded.

Outside, on the Metropolis streets, Joe watched the crowds below looking up to him, the way they must have looked up to his father, as he slowly descended from the skies. As Joe set the car down, he saw a familiar face emerging from the building opposite and seconds later he found himself face to face with reporter Clark Kent, who was asking him questions for the Daily Planet.

Joe saw the confusion in his father's eyes, and wanted to explain things to him, but the thing that he wanted to do most of all at that moment was to hug his father, who he was now seeing, as far as he could remember, for the first time.

Unfortunately, his super-intelligence also told him how dangerous it could be to reveal any of their plan to change history to his father, and the less that Clark knew of their mission the better.

"Stay away from us if you want to live," warned Joe, as he picked up the DeLorean, and then, as he readied himself to launch both himself and the car into the sky, he looked back at his father for what he knew would be the last time. If they failed to changed history, Clark would still end up dying, and if they succeeded he himself would grow up to be a very different Joseph Kent.

"I won't be back," he added, the words almost catching in his mouth, as, trying to hold back tears, he propelled himself and the vehicle up into the bright blue sky of yesteryear.

Meanwhile, Lois Lane had just arrived on the scene, only to seea man flying off into the distance holding some kind of car over his head. "Who was that?" she asked Clark, who, as usual, had managed to reach the scene before her.

"He looked like Superman," he replied. "But his eyes were different. They were more like..." he began, but then realized he couldn't finish the sentence, at least not here, not now. "Doesn't matter, Lois."

* * *

_**The Present:**_

"Father?" Zatanna whispered as she stood up. She took a step forward, but a flash of red in the eyes of Zod stopped her.

Giovanni Zatara smiled a sad smile. "It's good to see you again, Zatanna, but you shouldn't have come looking for me."

"But… but the lantern. You left it for me… I figured…"

"I left it for you to protect. That lantern is extremely powerful. In the wrong hands it would be extremely dangerous."

Zod turned at this, his eyes lighting up like a Christmas tree, "What lantern? You never told me anything about a lantern. I command you to explain this lantern to me."

Zatara shook his head. "No. I will not."

Zod's face grew dark and he turned, firing a blast of heat from his eyes that pierced Zatanna's shoulder. She cried out in pain, and her father took a step towards Zod, but was blocked by the large Kryptonian by Zod's side.

"Do not make me demand again, you will not like the outcome."

Giovanni Zatara bit his lower lip, considering, and finally realized he had no other choice as he watched his daughter stand up straight again, defiance in her eyes. Eyes that were so much like his.

"It is easier if I show you. The lantern, you see, is a gateway to other dimensions; I will show you when I last ran across it… when it had fallen into the wrong hands."

Zod's eyes narrowed. "No tricks."

"No tricks," Zatara assured him as he lifted his fingers to cast his spell.

"Is this the part where everything goes all wavy?" Zee asked.

In spite of their situation, Zatara couldn't help but laugh. "You have your mother's sense of humor. Now, watch…"

_A mountain top in Germany and a young John Zatara had just reached the peak. Out of breath and tired from the trek, he sat down, taking off his hat and wiping his brow. Even in the bitter cold, he was sweating._

_"I should have just teleported," he mumbled to himself. "Once I get this for you, Faraday, I owe you nothing."_

_He poked his head up over a large rock he had been sitting behind to see the Nazi soldiers pacing around the large castle; rifles slung over their shoulders._

_"More Nazis; these guys are getting annoying."_

_John looked around at his surroundings, gauging how far it was from his position to the rear entrance. He also counted three guards; difficult, but not impossible._

_He muttered a spell and moved his fingers in intricate patterns, and, to the right of the guards, a young German maiden seemed to appear. She was dressed in a very short and frilly dress, her extremely large bosom was stretching her white blouse, and her blonde hair was tied into pigtails._

_She giggled, a mug of ale in her hands, and the guards turned, stunned, bringing their weapons to arm. They were startled to see her, and she giggled again as she ran around the corner and disappeared._

_It took the guards only a second to decide on a course of action as all three of them took off after her._

_John smiled with pride. "I love that Swiss Miss spell; works almost every time."_

_He jumped up from behind the rock and took off towards the door. He was not surprised to find it was locked, but a quick spell eliminated that problem. He had to be careful though, and he knew it. The reason he had climbed the mountain instead of teleporting was in case they had any way to detect magic, and he had now cast two spells. He had to hurry._

_Opening the door, he instantly felt the presence of the magical item and, staying close to the wall, avoiding Nazi soldiers as they walked by, he made his way to a back staircase._

_He started down the stone steps, slowly, grateful that the lower level was lit by torches along the wall. When he was about halfway down, one of the steps gave way under his weight and he began to fall through. Reacting on instinct, he cast another spell and a large string of energy came from his hand, the end wrapping itself around a support beam above him. He energy whip snapped as it secured itself and John Zatara was able to pull himself up before he plummeted into an apparent abyss._

_Continuing on, he got to the bottom of the staircase and looked around. Just one long stone pathway. He moved forward, cautiously, his eyes moving constantly. He stopped once, grabbing a loose stone of the floor and tossing it in front of him about two feet. He watched as what looked like three machete blades burst from the walls and John froze them quickly. He then was able to step over and under them._

_The powerful magic was now very close, and he came to a large archway that opened up into a huge cavern. In the middle of it, placed on a large pedestal, was the lantern that Faraday had asked him to retrieve from the Third Reich._

_He took a few hesitant steps forward and heard the darts come out of the wall, right toward him. He dove to the ground as they flew over him and he rolled several feet, jumping up right in front of the podium._

_Grinning at his own ingenuity, he circled the lantern, examining it from all sides. Finally he took off his hat and very gently placed it over the lantern. When he brought the hat back up, the lantern was gone, and in its place was a white rabbit. His grin widened and at that moment, if he could have patted himself on the back, he would have._

_Zatara turned to go when he heard the noise. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he turned back around to see that the middle of the pedestal was slowly sinking, the white rabbit with it. He looked into the hat and back at the rabbit, his eyes growing wide with surprise._

_Just as the ears began to disappear out of sight, John grabbed the rabbit and yanked it back up. "Come on, Alice, we're getting out of here… both of us."_

_Suddenly the entire room seemed to come alive as the earth beneath him shook and the stone floor began to crumble. He leapt forward and made a mad dash out of the cavern, wondering for only a second where the weird and adrenaline-pumping music was coming from. Still… it was catchy._

_As he ran back down the corridor, several spears shot out from the wall, but he quickly cast a spell, causing them to turn into bats that fluttered away. His heart was racing, the music was picking up speed, and he realized, as he neared the stone staircase, that a giant wall was coming down from the ceiling in front of him._

_Picking up speed, he dove to the ground at the last second and rolled underneath the wall, his hat falling off as he made it safely to the other side. He quickly stuck his hand back through and felt the tip of his hat, grasping it and pulling it towards him right before the stone wall slammed against the floor._

_John stood up and dusted himself off, slapping his hat against the side of his pants, as he ran up the staircase and out of the back door._

_The guards were there, watching him leave, and for a moment he felt panic again, but they didn't seem to be moving towards him. He caught his breath and wiped his brow again, curious as to why the guards were just standing there, when he heard the rumble from behind him._

_He turned his head and saw the giant circular objects rolling towards him._

_"War Wheels! I hate War Wheels!"_

"But I had retrieved the lantern, and that was all that mattered," John said simply as his visual history lesson vanished.

"Wait! Wait!" Zod exclaimed with excitement. "How did you escape?"

Zatara gave him a disdainful look. "Magic, of course."

Zod curled his lip into a sneer. "Are there any more of these lanterns?"

John nodded. "Unfortunately, every world has one, as I discovered later on in my journeys."

Like lightning, Zod suddenly disappeared and then appeared in front of Zatanna, holding her up by the throat as she began to choke.

"I want one, and I want one now," he demanded with a grin.

* * *

_**1956:**_

Joe looked ahead as he carried the car, and his companions, through the arctic wastes, but all he seemed to see were endless white snowflakes, all surprisingly with the same pattern, cascading down against the black night sky, as an invisible choir sang in the background. Finally, his X-ray vision cut through them and zoomed in on the sight he'd been searching for: the Fortress of Solitude.

Seconds later, he was carefully placing the car down in the snow outside the fortress, and then his fellow travelers climbed out of the DeLorean, to find themselves standing under a giant golden door with a giant lock. John Constantine looked at the snow drifting down, covering those around him, and himself, even his fiery side, in a shroud of whiteness.

Meanwhile, Tamara, who'd never been one to wait for an invite, said "rooD nepo!" and, as the door began to open, she and the others began to climb up to the entrance, and the darkness within.

"Well, we know the big guy's not here," reasoned Constantine, as they clambered through the darkness, when suddenly the lights automatically activated, and he realized that he was wrong, many times over, as an army of Superman robots filled the air, looking at the person they thought was their master for an explanation.

As Joe's mind raced, thinking what to say, something else came into his mind; something alien, yet somehow familiar.

Meanwhile, Zee, like the others, looked at Joe, waiting for him to respond, but finally she grew tired of waiting for him to talk to the expectant robots. "ezeerF stobor!" she said, and then the robots, just like Joe it appeared, were frozen.

But, while Joe appeared to be frozen on the outside, in the inside he was hearing a woman's voice in his head, echoing his own thoughts. "It's just like you remember it from the last time you entered here, all those years hence, only now there's no longer the RAORAORAORAORAO scratched into the floor."

"Who? Who is that?" screamed Joe, finally, confusing those around him.

The voice ignored his question, as he looked around the room. "But they're new, over there," the voice intoned. "Those large ice sculptures - they'd long since melted when you were last here."

While the others looked at him in concern, Joe ignored them and walked over to look at the frozen sculptures, almost finished.

"That's right," continued the voice in his head. "Whenever he can, Kal-El comes here to his retreat and he works on them; always the same three women: the reporter, the childhood sweetheart, and the Merwoman."

Joe looks around in confusion, while the others just stare at him.

"Poor lonely Kal. He wants them so very much, he wants to be one of them, to fit in, but he never can. The poor ladies would just break in his hands. This is the only way he can touch them; the only way he can have them. He's so very, very alone - no wonder he named his home Solitude."

"Stop it," yelled Joe sinking to his knees.

"Wait..." said the voice hesitantly. "Kal... he's... he's your father?! And, no, this can't be true. Tamara can't be right."

The voice in Joe's head suddenly fell silent.

He looked again at the others, finally remembering again that they were there with him, and attempted to explain things. "There was this woman's voice in my head, saying things about my father. Saying that Tamara can't be right."

"But I am," said Tamara. "I know who she is. I think Zee does too."

Zatanna looked at her half-sister in confusion at first, but then she realized this woman talking to Joe was the same woman that they'd come to find. "She's from the Phantom Zone," said Zee. "She's one of the villains there, using her telepathy to talk to you, just like she talked to your father. Her name's Faora."

"Faora?" asked a confused Joe.

Tamara nodded, and then explained further, "She's your mother."

* * *

_**The Present:**_

Zod stood with his legs apart and his hands planted firmly on his hips. "Give me a lantern now or I will eliminate you and all your friends."

Zatara gave him a cold look and said nothing, but Zatanna spoke up, "Fine, you want one, you can have mine, but first you have to let me talk to my father. I have questions that need to be answered."

The supreme ruler pondered this request for a moment, "Alright, fine, but no tricks."

"No tricks," she answered. She turned to her father. "You have to tell me, how could you do it? How could you cheat on mother?"

Pain showed in Zatara's eyes. "You have met your sister; I'm sorry. Believe me, though, when I tell you that Tamara was way, way before your mother. I was still rather young, and foolish in the ways of love."

"Who was she?"

"She was a passenger on a cruise ship where I was working as a magician… a struggling magician at that. She was… was… wealthy, and beautiful, and engaged to a man who was much, much older than her. I fell in love with her almost immediately, or what I believed to be love at that point. We spent every chance we could get together, and she eventually showed me the ways of black magic… not all… but some. In fact, our final night together, we stood at the bow of the ship, the scent of the salty ocean in the air, and we stood together, our arms outstretched, and that was the night she taught me how to fly."

"You're kidding…"

"I believe I'm going to be nauseous," Zod mumbled.

Zatara continued, so lost in his own reflections that he had forgotten those around him. "That was the night we consummated our love. Our passion was overwhelming, and we could not hold back any longer. It was during that brief moment of love that I saw her necklace, and the lantern that hung from it. I asked her why she would want to marry such an old man, hoping she would reconsider. That was when she told me that the man was the same age as myself… he even had the same name as me."

"What?!" Zatanna exclaimed.

"Oh yes, she was from a parallel universe and she had seduced me for one reason only, to take my power from me. To absorb my energy and leave my husk, as she had done with so many others before. We fought, a battle that I don't know how I won. She created an Ice Gollum from the cold air and water around us, but I defeated it. I wasn't able, however, to do so without the ship being mortally damaged. She had me cornered and I thought I was dead, but I believed at that moment that the lantern was the source of her power. I tore it from her and smashed it, throwing the pieces into the ocean. She screamed in anguish and dove in after it. That was the last I ever saw of her. I believed she had drowned. I was left with the others, on the rapidly sinking ship."

"Wait! Wait! How did you escape," Zod demanded, caught up in the story.

Zatara gave him a disdainful look. "Magic… of course."

* * *

_**1956, The Phantom Zone:**_

They should have been out enjoying their short lives, having fun until the day came when their planet exploded, but instead Principal Jor-El had sentenced them - the brains, the criminals, the rebels, the recluses - to an eternal detention in the Phantom Zone, so long, long ago, to try and teach them the errors of their ways. To an outsider, it might seem like they'd had the last laugh on Jor-El, but an outsider could never appreciate the sheer horror of the Phantom Zone, a telepathic realm were they could but float, intangibly, starved of physical contact, having to share their psychopathic thoughts and desires with each other.

Faora had hated it at first, and then hated it some more, but over time, she'd become resigned to her fate, as she'd learned about the others, and finally learned to get along. She'd lost all hope, but then one day her hope had been rekindled, thanks to a Phantom Zone projector in the Fortress of Solitude, that had provided the smallest of conduits, enabling them to reach out with their telepathy to the outside world. First, it had been just to Kal and that dog of his, both seemingly immune to their suggestions. Now, however, there were newcomers to the Fortress, and it was these minds they had now turned their attention to.

Faora looked stunned at the latest revelation, and heard the thoughts of the other Phantom Zone residents as they all turned to her and their mental jaws dropped. She looked at the cool kid, Zod, and was that hurt she saw in his eyes, felt in his thoughts. It didn't matter - that's what she told herself - as she looked at them defiantly, while the Zone made her emotions plain for all to see.

Zod averted his eyes from her, and turned his mind to the humans entering the Fortress and their simple minds. The first he visited was John Constantine's and was struck with an image of himself setting the human on fire.

"He hates me! He really hates me!" thought a satisfied Zod, and then as he delved deeper he realized the truth. "We're the men of tomorrow."

Jax-Ur read Zod's thoughts. "What are we going to do tomorrow, Zod?"

"Take over the world," was Zod's simple reply.

But Faora's and most of the other Zoners' thoughts were on Joe, Faora's apparent offspring, the first son of Earth.

In the Fortress itself, Joe, his mind no longer plagued by the thoughts of Faora, was asking Zee and Tamara to tell him the truth.

The Kryptonians, mentally looking on, had already read Tamara's thoughts by this point. "You want the truth?" they thought. "You can't handle the truth."

In the outside reality, Zatanna was of a similar mind. "Trust me, Joe, it's probably best that we don't tell you."

Joe looked at her, his eyes glowing red.

"Feel that anger," thought Zod from afar. "Your son shows promise, Faora."

Meanwhile, Joe had begun to unleash that anger. "What? More secrets? Do you think I'm stupid? Don't you think my super-hearing picked up your conversations in the Batcave and back on the highway about keeping the truth from me?"

"I'm sorry, Joe," began Zatanna, but Joe wasn't listening.

"I trusted you, Zatanna. I thought you were different. But you're just like all the other magic users, keeping me in the dark."

"Trust me," implored Zee. "Some things you don't want to know."

Tamara smiled. "Aw, go on, Sis, let me tell him," she said, and then, seeing the look on Zatanna's face, she fell silent.

Joe however was no longer listening to them, but to the voice of his newly-found mother, that now filled his mind. "Why not let me out?" asked Faora. "I'll tell you everything."

Around her, in the Phantom Zone, the other Kryptonians slouching around her, floating in the nothingness, shook their heads. She'd never managed to persuade Superman to let her out, not yet, despite all of her teasing and tempting and taunting; and they saw this as yet one more hopeless attempt. In truth, so did Faora, but she couldn't give up, and, to her surprise, she found Joe telling his companions to release her from the zone. Her dear 'son' wanted to be alone with his mother.

Without consulting the others, Tamara waved a mystical hand, and the Phantom Zone projector flew into Joe's grasp.

"Careful what you wish for," she said to Joe, and then cast another spell, taking herself, Zatanna and John outside, leaving Joe alone inside with the device.

Faora smiled as her future son examined the Phantom Zone projector. She'd accepted the fact that she'd had to sacrifice a whole eternity in detention for whatever it was she'd done wrong, but Jor-El saw them as he wanted to see them... in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what they'd found out was that each one of them was a brain... and a criminal... and a General ...and a basket case... and a psychobitch.

Faora took one last look around the Phantom Zone at the strange bunch of killers and freaks she'd somehow begun to regard as friends.

"Don't you forget about me," she said to them, as she found herself torn from the immateriality back into the real world.

* * *

_**The Present:**_

"And so we come to the final part of the story, and how that sorceress returned," said Zatara, "although for you to fully appreciate the situation, I'll need to bring the scene to life."

At which point, under the eye of a wary Zod, the magician started to conjure up a three-dimensional recreation of events around them, and, as the scene changed around them, they suddenly found themselves standing in a strange landscape where most of the Kryptonians were neither sure of what was up nor down, nor of how many dimensions they were in, as both gravity and reality appeared to wrap themselves inside-out.

As the Kryptonians struggled to overcome the nausea this induced, Zee's eyes turned from her father, and instead zoomed in on the wise-cracking face of her younger father, from times gone by, as he looked around this building he was in.

"Where are we?" asked Jax-Ur, struggling to comprehend things.

"This is Fate's Tower," explained the present-day Zatara, as he looked at his younger self. "I was house-sitting for Kent and Inza Nelson while they were vacationing on a different plain."

Across from them, the young Zatara took off his shoes, ready to step into a pair of rabbit-shaped slippers, when suddenly he heard a noise coming from upstairs (or possibly downstairs) - a natural noise amongst all the unnatural ones - and was confused since the protection spell he'd cast should have prevented anyone from entering from the outside.

Forgetting about donning his slippers, Zatara rushed out and started running up (or possibly running down) a set of Escherian stairs, only to find himself coming across a masked female in a figure-hugging outfit, her hand pulsing with purple energy. From the creases in her mask, Zatara could make out that she was smiling as, without a moment's contemplation, she fired a blast of mystical energy at him. Although the attack was quick, so was he, and he mostly managed to dodge, rolling to the ground, his tuxedo now aflame.

"I've found an intruder, Mother," she said, talking into a communication device. "I'll take care of him," she added, smiling once again, as she watched the man in front of her ripping his burning jacket off, leaving just a shirtfront.

She attacked him at that moment, saying spell after spell, but he understood every backwards phrase of hers and could counter them, just as she understood every spell of his and could protect herself accordingly.. As the seconds turned into minutes, it seemed that neither of them could gain an advantage.

Suddenly, in the midst of this stalemate, he pulled off his hat and turned the opening towards her, leaving her to be deluged by a waterfall of rabbits.

"Yippie-kay-ay, magic-user," he shouted, as he levitated over the newly-created hill of rabbits and entered the room above.

As he entered, he was surprised to find his previous opponent, or rather someone just like her, standing there, next to a woman in the shadows. Still, this wasn't the first time he'd seen her in the shadows.

"It can't be," he said.

"Thought I was dead, did you?" came the voice that Zatara instantly recognized. "I managed to get home after you left me lost at sea, but you broke my gateway between worlds. Luckily, another magician used a lantern to visit the land where I live, and eventually I took it from him - sucked all the magic from him - just before he was going to visit his counterpart on this world." Then she waved her lantern at him. "I was hoping that I could find another lantern here, but you'll do. Feed my magical appetite some more."

Zatara lifted his hands, ready to cast a spell on the lantern, when suddenly, from behind, he was smashed over the head with a rabbit, knocking him to the ground.

"Hmmm, the rabbit died," mused the sorceress, still standing in the shadows, as she saw the lifeless form in her daughter's hands. "That happened after I met him the last time."

With those words she strode over to him, and, just as Zatara started to open his eyes, he felt the magic lantern being swung against his head. Just before losing consciousness, he heard the woman order the same lantern to take them home, and then there was a whirlwind of energy and suddenly the four of them had disappeared.

At that moment the image of Fate's Tower vanished around the Kryptonians and they were grateful to find themselves once again standing in their satellite, Zatara and Zatanna before them.

"And I suppose you then escaped using magic," concluded Zod.

Zatara, a haunted look on his face, stared into Zod's eyes. "No, Zod, I didn't escape. Not for a long time. After we'd left Fate's Tower, I regained consciousness to find myself falling through the air with the sorceress and her daughters. I just had time to cast a magic spell to destroy that lantern, but that was the last spell I cast for a long while."

"What happened?" asked Zatanna, looking into her father's eyes.

"We reached the ground, slowed down by a spell. Anyway, the sorceress tried in vain to magic the lantern back together, but to no avail. She told me that was the second time I'd ruined her life, and then one of her daughters said I owed them big time and cast a spell. Suddenly magical clamps appeared around my wrists and ankles and my mouth was sealed so that they couldn't hear my screams as they slowly begin to feed on my magical power. As I looked up, the pain unbearable, the girls took off their masks. There was a blonde one I didn't recognize, but the other... the other looked just like you, Zatanna." He looked over at his daughter, expecting some kind of reaction from her to this revelation, but she just stared at him blankly, unsympathetically. He almost didn't recognize her. Once she'd been so different to this other Zatanna, but now she seemed so similar. "Anyway, this other Zatanna looked down at me, smiled at me, as she saw that I recognized her, saw that I finally realized what my connection was with her and her sister. _Yippee-kay-ay, mothe-,_ she began, and then I passed out."

* * *

**_1956:_**

_The harsh bitter wind blew with force over Zatanna, John, and Tamara. They stared at the outside of the Fortress, each wishing the place had been built somewhere else… anywhere else… the Brazilian jungle, perhaps._

_"So what exactly is going on here?" Constantine asked. "Please tell me we're not in one of those movies where we end up having to eat each other."_

_Zee opened her mouth to reassure him, then snapped it shut. She honestly couldn't guarantee that, not at this point._

_"Well, could someone at least tell me what's going on with Joe?" he demanded._

_"I already told you," Tamara snapped as she moved closer to the flaming side of his body. "Of course, perhaps I accidentally erased it… that would be possible."_

_"Faora being Joe's mother is going to make this a lot more difficult," Zee mused._

_Frustration came through John's voice," Because…?"_

_Tamara shrugged at her sister, "You can tell him this time. The fun of it is gone, for me."_

_"Imagine that Kal is getting lonelier and lonelier, nobody to talk to," Zatanna started explaining, "and Faora's constantly intruding on his thoughts… until… until he finally gives in; say in nineteen fifty-nine, for instance…"_

_"And we get Joe!" Constantine says, slapping his head. "Now that makes sense. He's just lucky she didn't… oh crap… she did, didn't she?"_

_Zee nodded. "She killed him. She did what all others were not able to do. With his last ounce of strength and speed, he carved her name into the floor of the Fortress." Zatanna picked up a stick and etched the name 'FAORA' into the snow. "Of course, she tried to hide it," continued Zee. "Grasped Superman's dead hand to write with and used it to turn the F into an R." She demonstrated in the snow, changing the word 'FAORA' so that it read 'RAORA' and then adding further letters so that finally it resembled the list of RAOs that had finally be found at the crime scene. "At that point we can only surmise what she did. Probably killed off any little witnesses that were in Kandor that may have seen it. Perhaps she went back to the Phantom Zone to brag, coming back in some fashion after the other heroes had left. Who knows?"_

_Tamara snapped her fingers. "Let's ask her! Right before we kill her."_

_Zee gave her sister a cold stare. "We can't do that! Not only is it just plain wrong, but all of this is just hypothesis on our part. And even if we do kill her, then we kill Joe too."_

_"Right," her sister said with an evil grin. "He deserves it. It was that teenage brat who went all Alex Haley and was gullible enough to release everyone from the Phantom Zone."_

_"We're not going to do it!" Zatanna challenged._

_Her sister smirked, "Oh, we will… he's going to ask us to." She moved her fingers and shouted one word, "rebmemeR"_

_Inside the Fortress, as he listened to his mother, memories came crashing through Joe's mind like a tidal wave. He was one year old, again, yet advanced in ways that would take human children at least four more years to be. There were people all around his mother. They were shouting at her, telling her that they knew she had killed his father. Suddenly they were waving a piece of yellow rock in front of her and she crumbled to her knees, weak as a two-hours-old kitten. Watching from a distance, he blew the shiny rock away, as far away as possible, and then he was flying through those colorful costumed people. Breaking them into little pieces, ignoring the cries of agony as ripped them apart; until finally they were no more._

_Then he saw his mother pleading with him to use his heat vision on her. The golden rock had changed her, made her weak. She wouldn't live as a human, she couldn't. She would not crawl on the ground when she had been meant to soar so far above them all. He didn't want to do it, but she begged him, kept begging him, told him to be a good boy…_

_Then Joe's mind came back to the present, as he saw his mother's face, younger, more powerful, staring back at him now, and he remembered that same face being torn apart by his heat vision all those years ago. Joe couldn't take any more and he burst into tears. "I was a good boy! I was! Wasn't I, Mommy?"_

_Faora was taken aback, not sure at first what to do, but then instinct took over and she gently wrapped her arms around her son._

_"Of course you were," she reassured him as she felt the familiar feelings arise._

_"Mother… what are you doing?"_

_"Shhh… Mommy has needs, darling."_

_Meanwhile, outside of the Fortress, the tension was rising between Zatanna and Tamara as Zee admonished her older sister for what she had just done to Joe. Tamara stopped as she watched a dark-clad woman crawling up the side of the mountain. Cloaked and carrying a sickle, she lay on the ground, after reaching the top, catching the breath she no longer had._

_Tamara nodded at the girl who nodded back. "Sorry I'm late, it's just that people usually wait to be born before they die."_

_"What are you looking at?" Zee demanded._

_"Oh just looking death in the face."_

_Death shrugged her shoulders, "I see dead people, sue me. You know what, just ignore me, I wasn't even here. Gotta keep going. Have another appointment soon, party of five… bad salmon mousse and all that." She continued her trek up to the keyhole._

_Tamara looked back at her sister, "Anyway, I think we can kill Faora now." She saw the confused look on her sister's face. "I think she just killed Joe."_

_"But… but… that was her son!"_

_Tamara chuckled. "Well, I guess you just can't change some people. Take me, for example," she said as she brought her hands from behind her back, the magenta-colored energy flowing from them. "Really, you should never have brought me along. After all, I think you've just about worn out your usefulness."_

_Zatanna's eyes widened as she brought forth the dark magic that she had tried so hard to suppress. "Bring it on, Sister!"_

* * *

_**The Present:**_

"Anyway, now you know how I arrived on this world," finished Zatara, looking at his surviving daughter. "That sorceress and her two daughters had me captured for years, feeding off my magical energy, leaving me just enough energy left to ensure that I'd survive for my next day of torment."

Zatanna stared at him, as if she was waiting for him to say something, but Zatara wasn't sure what words she wanted to hear. As it was, all he could offer was the truth: "I wanted to get in touch with you, so many times, but I couldn't risk endangering you. Indeed, there were those here who knew of my plight who attempted to contact you, even though I pleaded with them not to."

"But how could they have contacted me?" asked a curious Zatanna. "I was on another world."

"Multiverses are no obstacle for The Phantom Stranger and Madame Xanadu, who are aware of their other existences, attune with their counterparts on other worlds."

"The Stranger and Xanadu," said Zatanna, with a smile. "I'll have to find a way to thank them."

"Indeed you should, for they also helped me to escape my captors. That's when I came here - to seek protection with the Kryptonians."

Zatanna looked at him with anger in her eyes. "You've allied yourself with these murderers, after all they've done?"

Before Zatanna could answer, General Zod interjected. "So," he said to Zee, "you've had all of your answers now, so could I please have that magic lantern of yours."

"Be patient, Kryptonian," said Zatanna, her attention still on Zatara. "So, Father," she began, "I've seen the way you've been looking at me; the look of disappointment in your eyes, all because I killed Tamara. Tell me, did you love her more than you loved me?"

Zatara looked at her in astonishment. "I can't believe you could even think that. It broke my heart to be parted from you, while my daughters in this dimension were just mistakes, abominations, who I could never ever love. Believe me, as far as I'm concerned, you're my only daughter."

"That's what I figured," said the young magician, who suddenly found tears coming to her eyes. "Still, I've kept us all talking long enough now. Guess it's time for one last trick."

The Kryptonians look at her warily, having had quite enough of her sleights-of-hand.

"You know what the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was, don't you, father?"

"Convincing the world he doesn't exist," replied the confused Zatara.

"Exactly," she said, as she clawed her nails into her face and ripped the mask away from it to reveal her true identity.

"Tamara?!"

* * *

_**1956:**_

_Zatanna raised her arms to cast her spell, the dark magic coursing through her, and she allowed it to; relishing in it for the first time. Sadly, she never got the chance to use it, as Tamara was more than prepared with her spell, and a single magical bolt from her hands struck Zee square in the chest and, when the smoke cleared, all that was left was Zee's top hat._

_"You… you killed her," Constantine said._

_"She'd have killed me. Call it payback," Tamara said as she picked up the hat and began searching inside. "Let's just hope that damn lantern is in here somewhere… Ow!... Stupid rabbit," she cried out as she withdrew her hand to see where Basil had bit her. "Hope you enjoyed that, you furry little cretin, because it's boiled bunny when we get back."_

_"So do we kill Faora now?" John asked._

_"No, that was never the plan. We've got to get back to the present."_

_"What about Joe and Faora?"_

_"A few words and a magical spell will clear up his remains and put her back in the Phantom Zone, oblivious to it all. Now let's get out of here before that Death girl comes back for my sister… she gives me the creeps."_

_After a quick clean up of the scene, John found himself once again in the DeLorean, being driven through a city that he did not recognize. "So how exactly are we getting back?"_

_"Well, all the plutonium is gone and this dopey movie magic spell means I can't power it by magic, which means we need a massive surge of electricity."_

_"She should have gotten us a time-traveling phone booth," John muttered. "Where the hell are we going to find that much electricity in one place?"_

_Tamara grinned. "Hey, she didn't send us back to this date in time in 1956 just for the hell of it. When she was going through Batman's files in Gotham she found one on the Justice League. That's why we're here… in Central City, heading towards the police department."_

_"Care to elaborate?"_

_"No time," she said as she cursed at the movie spell once again and muttered an incantation, a huge lightning rod appearing on the back of the car. "Hold on," she yelled out as the heavens opened up and the storm hit. She pressed down on the accelerator, the car careening towards the steps of the police station, when a huge bolt of lightning, on its way to a shelf of chemicals in the police laboratory, struck the car and it disappeared, leaving behind a burning trail of tire tracks._

_The DeLorean came to a screeching halt as it reappeared in the present, some time in the middle of the night. "Well, that was fun. Anyway, only one way to get to father now, but first I'll need a disguise." A second later, John found himself staring into the face of Zatanna. "Now I'm going to have to attract some attention. Oh, and I'm going to have to wipe your memory again. Can't risk you giving the game away.."_

_"Now wait a minute," John Constantine began, but then looked around in confusion. "Wait, where are we? Last thing I remember, we were leaving Smallville."_

_"We had a battle… you were knocked unconscious. Don't you remember?" replied the girl who looked like Zatanna._

_Before he could answer, two Kryptonians suddenly appeared from the sky. One was tall and lanky, the other shorter and overweight. Both of them wore darkened protective visors._

_A woman wearing a magician's outfit got out of the car and looked up at the two hovering figures. "Well, how about that. It's dark out and you're wearing shades."_

_"We're on a mission from Zod," one of them stated._

_Tamara, looking remarkably like Zatanna, smiled so sweetly that it was reminiscent of her departed half-sister. "In that case, take me to your leader."_

* * *

_**The Present:**_

Zatara felt a knot in his stomach, as he looked into the eyes of his daughter Tamara. Every time he'd looked into them before, she'd been torturing him, stealing his magic, but she'd never tortured him as much as she had done today. "You killed her?" he hissed, as he realized that he'd never see his Zatanna again.

"Sure I did," she replied, "and, after what you just said about me, you're next."

"So," exclaimed an angry Zod to Tamara, "you've just been wasting our time."

Tamara shook her head. "No, no, my dear general, that was valuable time," she explained. "My father's magic has been protecting your satellite, you and your Kryptonian troops thus far, but I've been spending the time wisely, slowly siphoning off that magic, subverting it to my needs. Now, me and my friend are far more powerful than you."

"Friend?" asked Jax-Ur, stepping forward.

"That amnesiac I brought with me," Tamara explained. "You might remember him, Zod. I believe he's got a score to settle with you."

"John Constantine," said Zod. "I was only half-finished with him myself. Still, despite your bravado, I know that nobody is more powerful than Zod, so, daughter of Zatara, you will bow before me. I've had enough of your games."

Tamara smiled at Zod. "If that's what you wish, Zod, then 'game over'," she said and then mumbled a word.

And with that word, everything dropped into slow motion, as Tamara, her Zatanna outfit now transforming into black latex, leaped into the air, hovering there, before taking her time to kick Zod across the room.

Zatara was surprised to find himself similar empowered, as, before the Kryptonians with their super-speed could react, he managed to leap over them and assume a fighting position.

Then the panicking Kryptonians heard a banging coming from below, deep in the heart of the satellite, as wall after wall was smashed through, and then the banging became closer and more deafening, and suddenly John Constantine, who moments earlier had been securely restrained in a cell below, was standing before them in the room, his flame slowly wafting, as he motioned with his hand for Zod to come nearer. "You're the one," he growled at Zod, his flames growing higher. Zod rushed at him, but was smashed back with a flaming hand, that sent him flying back across the room with such force that he crashed through the wall, and then through the next three walls beyond that.

The Kryptonians looked aghast as their leader disappeared from sight, and then their attention turned back to Constantine, whose own attention was now focused on the black-clad blonde opposite him.

"Hi, Honey Bunny," he greeted her.

"Hi, Pumpkin," Tamara responded. "Fancy turning the town red?"

And then, as one, in slow motion, they turned towards the Kryptonians, and Zatara watched in horror as the two of them worked their way systematically through the Kryptonians, tearing them limb from limb; the slow motion making the horror seem to last forever.

Finally, after an eternity, the last Kryptonian slowly fell to the ground, and Tamara, drips of alien blood rolling down her shiny outfit, turned to her father, with a smile; but, true to form, it seemed even her latest actions hadn't made Zatara proud.

"I've got to go, Honey Bunny," said John, kissing Tamara on the cheek. "Unfinished business."

"Be careful, Pumpkin," she said flatly, her eyes still locked on Zatara's. "Zod could still be dangerous."

"Zod's dead, baby," he reassured her. "Zod's dead." And with that, he knelt down, and then, with a shockwave, launched himself in the air, leaving the room through the same wall as Zod had, flying through the whole satellite, faster than a speeding Kryptonian, seeking out his nemesis.

A split-second later he encountered General Zod, in a room that turned out to be adjacent to the one he'd just left Tamara in..

"The battle's over, General," John Constantine said, as he walked to the General, his black leather trench coat flowing out behind him.

"I know. Doesn't look like there'll be any winners," said General Zod, as he stood in front of a console, desperately typing in the required protocols to the ship's computer.

"Greetings, General Zod," replied a robotic voice, as Kryptonian letters suddenly appeared on the console. "Shall we play a game?"

"Yes," gasped Zod with his dying breath, as John Constantine's hands gripped his throat. And then, as the general looked at his killer, through the hazy red of his heat vision, the last words Zod would hear came from the ship's computer:

"Let's play Global Thermonuclear War."

As Zod's world faded from red to black, John Constantine, looked at the console, and listened to its countdown begin, but it wasn't long before he found the sound of that countdown being drowned out by his own string of expletives.

* * *

They looked across at each other, father and daughter; daughter bathed in the blood of Kryptonians. John Zatara wanted to look away, his body filled with revulsion towards his oldest child, but he couldn't – or wouldn't.

"Oh don't look at me that way… _Daddy_. You're still going to get your old job back. We're still family, you know. Mommy and I still want you to feed us all that wonderful energy that you've been supplying us with for so long."

As Zatara opened his mouth to reply, John Constantine came running in from the next room. "We've got a bit of a problem," he said, his thumb motioning back into the other room. "Seems as though in five minutes the satellite is going to blow up the Earth, and then take itself out for good measure. Thought you might want to know and all."

Tamara rolled her eyes, "Do I have to do everything around here." She cast a spell, the dark magic emanating from her hands. She watched Constantine look back into the other room and then shake his head… it hadn't worked.

Giovanni Zatara sighed. "That is my doing, I'm afraid. I cast a spell to make sure that nothing could override the self-destruct sequence… not even myself. Unfortunately, I didn't know it was going to take out the planet as well."

"Well then," Tamara said as she grabbed Zatanna's hat. "I suppose we need that lantern now more than ever. This time if that damn bunny bites me, I'm biting back."

As she leaned forward to look into the hat, she was caught off guard by the fist that flew out of it and struck her in the face, knocking her back. She lost the grip on the hat and it fell to the ground, rolling in a small circle, and then coming to a stop.

When it had completed its movement, Zatanna rolled out of the hat, springing up and then placing the hat back on her head. Tamara stood in shock; Zatara grinned proudly and began to applaud. Zee couldn't help but smile at her father as she took a small bow in his direction.

She turned back to her fair-haired sister, her eyes blazing. "Did you _really_ think that I was going to trust you at all? Or that you could defeat me that easily? Just before we left Smallville I set up a spell that would transport me into the hat should you launch an attack against me. It took you longer than I thought, but I waited, listening to all those lies, those transparent manipulations; just biding my time until the moment was right."

Tamara smiled, "Thank goodness," she said with relief. "It was so unfulfilling the first time; not much of a fight at all. _This_ time, I'll make sure you suffer first. Besides, I want to make sure that both mother and father are here to witness the moment I destroy you, so I can feel their pride in me. Are you ready, Mother?"

"Of course, my child," came the sultry voice of Tamara's mother from the shadows. "I've waited just as long as you have for this moment."

"No! No, it can't be," Zatanna gasped as Tamara's mother came into the light.

Sindella smiled at her. "I told you little girl… trust no one."

* * *

Sindella looked at Zatanna's dumbstruck face and her smile grew wider. "I really must thank you, child. Not only have you helped Tamara to get here and destroy the Kryptonian defences, but I hear you've also brought a magic lantern with you. Better than we planned even. Guess there's no more need for that movie spell, Tamara dear – we can't risk giving Zatanna a happy ending."

As Tamara nodded and mumbled a cancellation spell, Zatanna looked at Sindella dumbstruck, unable to believe how this woman, who'd seemed just like her mother, could now turn out to be so very unlike her. While she struggled to try and comprehend what was going on, Tamara decided to take advantage of the situation and hurled a bolt of mystical energy at her oblivious half-sister, blasting her across the room.

Giovanni Zatara, seeing what was happening, rushed forward, saying his backward words, but nothing happened. As he said them again, Tamara looked over at him and smiled a wicked smile. "Don't you remember, father? Your words have no power now; I've been draining your magic today, storing it away for something like this," she said, as she flung another smaller bolt at her father, knocking him to the floor. "Just think," she gloated, "it's your magic I'll use to kill your most precious of daughters."

"No..." groaned Zatara, as he struggled to get to his feet, but another blast of magic from Sindella caused chains to form around him, binding him to the ground.

"Quiet, lover," said Sindella, walking over to him. "Let's watch the children play."

Tamara strode over to where the battered, yet still breathing, figure of her fallen half-sister lay, and, kneeling down, she grabbed hold of Zatanna's hair, using it to hoist the young magician's head up. "Wake up. Time to die."

"You... you need the lantern," said a dazed Zatanna, struggling to focus.

"That's why you're not dead yet," replied Tamara. "Now, give me the lantern, and I might let you live. Remember your fun year of captivity, Zee, where I kept you drained of all of your magical energy; maybe we could carry on where we left off. This time you'll have daddy to keep you company... you can watch each other suffer."

"Hate to interrupt," said a worried John Constantine, placing a hand on Tamara's shoulder, "but this place is still on the verge of blowing up."

"That's why we need the magic lantern," replied Tamara, "and my dear half-sister is going to provide us with it."

Zee looked at Tamara and laughed. "I'll never let you get your hand-"

"Wrong answer," Tamara butted in, as she slammed Zatanna's head against the floor. "Now, please do this, or do you want me to force you to?"

"Never," she groaned in defiance, as she struggled to push herself back up off the ground.

Tamara shook her head. "There's no point in playing the hero. My mixed-Earth genes mean I can cross the worlds at will; that's how I visited you on your Earth in the first place. Maybe I'll pretend to be you again; have fun with that team of yours. Anyway, there's no way I'm going to die here today; I just couldn't bear dying again."

"Again?" said a confused Zatanna and John in unison.

Tamara looked at them, wondering if there was enough time left for an explanation, but, time permitting or not, Zatanna deserved to know why she hated her so much.

"I once had a twin sister," she began. "Her name was Zatanna; so much like you. John worshipped her."

"But I don't remember..." began John.

"No, you wouldn't; I cleared her from your memories, to save you all that pain. Anyway, while she and I once did everything together, things changed when she was corrupted by her mystic power; all she wanted was power and more power. Our last meeting together didn't go very well..." Tamara paused, her eyes looking down accusingly at her half-sister. "She killed me."

"But... but you're alive?" said Constantine, edging out of the room slowly, suddenly realizing that he'd seen an escape pod on his earlier flight around the satellite.

Tamara explained to the departing John, "Mother took care of me. Got that Eternity boy to bring me back to life, then wiped it from his mind."

"Great," nodded John, realizing that nobody was really taking the satellite's imminent demise seriously and that he'd be better off on his own. "Anyway, see you around, folks."

"And this other Zatanna?" asked Zatanna, who was now sitting up on the ground.

Sindella spoke. "I took care of her as well... I still regret it. Now please, Zatanna, don't make me kill two of you."

"Maybe a truth spell will make Zee reveal the lantern's location," suggested Tamara.

"What would you two know about the truth?" asked Zatanna, looking up at Tamara.

"I let Joe know the truth," said Tamara, with a smile.

"So, I saw," said Zee. "I was there, remember."

"Not every time," said Tamara with a smile. "You see, poor de-powered Joe wasn't my mother's adopted son, he was our slave, as we fed off his super-energy every night, bringing his traumatic memories back just to torture him, and then clearing his memory until the next night when his nightmare would begin again."

Zatanna glared at Tamara, as she started to rise from the floor. "Do you deliberately want to make me angry?"

Tamara nodded. "Yeah. I've got my magic plus our father's, so I reckon I can make you do anything I want."

"But two can play at that game," said Zatanna, her face bowed down in shadow as a smile spread across it.

"You're bluffing," said Tamara. "You've stolen my power before. Trust me, I'd notice if you tried it again."

"Yes, but your mother wouldn't," replied Zee, as she rose to her feet and then continued to rise as she left the ground, her body starting to glow with magenta mystical energy and her torn costume starting to repair and redesign itself.

Tamara just smiled. This Zatanna now reminded her completely of her long-departed twin sister. Revenge would be sweet.

* * *

It wasn't until Zatanna's comment that Sindella realized just how weak she was growing. She sat down next to the chained-up Zatara, and sighed. "These kids really will be the death of us."

Zatanna deflected the magical bolt that Tamara threw at her and flung one of her own, knowing full well that her half-sister would easily deflect it. This was the just the opening shots, to gauge each other, before the battle commenced in earnest. The only problem was, Zee had very little time. The station was going to blow itself up, and the Earth with it; it might not have been her Earth, but there were still innocent lives hanging in the balance.

"You do take to the dark magic rather easily, sister," Tamara said with a wicked grin. "You know what we could accomplish together?"

"Don't even try that _join me and embrace the dark side_ crap, Tamara, because it isn't going to happen. It all ends here, and now."

"Very well then, time for you to die, little sister." Tamara laughed as she pushed her power, a massive wave of purple magic swelling out from the palms of her hands.

Zee gritted her teeth as she unleashed all she had, the magenta-colored magic burst forth and met Tamara's between them. There was very little sound, but everyone in the room could feel the power that was surrounding them as the two magicians clashed.

Dark purple and magenta sparks flew from the middle of the battle. Both sisters strained as they focused their will, trying to find the crack in the others defense that would give them the edge. It was a stalemate, Zee knew it, and the clock was ticking. She knew the way out, had it planned, but she had to take her sister down first.

She felt her shielding give just a bit and Tamara pressed her attack, her wicked grin growing with the realization. The older sister was continuing to grow powerful, while Zee's grip on Sindella was beginning to wane.

"You should have taken me up on my offer," Tamara sneered.

Zatanna's eye's widened in horror. It wasn't enough power! She could only take so much from Sindella without killing her, and in the end, she couldn't do it… no matter how much Zee felt that the woman deserved it. The dark magic was enticing her, calling her to do it, but she held on to that spark of good that had always lit the way. She knew that it was a spark that she had been born with, it was the first moment of her creation, and it came from her father and _her_mother. It was, however, that spark that was about to doom her and her father.

Giovanni watched his daughter struggle, knowing that his power, that was being drained by his demented oldest daughter, would be what would kill his beloved Zatanna. She needed more power, and there was only one way to do it; something that Zee would never allow herself to do.

He turned slowly, staring at the monster that resembled his beloved Sindella from his world. This one was nothing like her, nothing like the beautiful soul that would have given her life for her daughter… not taken it away without a hint of remorse.

Closing his eyes, fighting the nauseating feeling of exhaustion that permeated his entire body, he gathered all his remaining strength and flung his arms around Sindella's head and pulled the magical chains, that bound his hands, into Sindella's throat. He felt her body try to fight him off, but he pulled tightly; refusing to give an inch.

Tamara saw her mother groping, her arms reaching out to her daughter for help; she chose to ignore it. After all, the woman did kill her twin sister; who was to say she wouldn't do the same to her someday. "Sorry, Mother, but this is what you would have wanted."

Giovanni held tight, realizing with Tamara's words that she had not caught on. Did not understand what was about to happen. She was too caught up in her own battle, in proving that she was the better sister. It made him sick; what he was doing made him sick, but he had to… for Zatanna. He _would_ not let her down. Gulping in air, he used his remaining strength to finally crush Sindella's windpipe, holding on until her body stopped flopping on the ground like a fish out of water.

Two things happened simultaneously. The power that Zatanna had been draining from Sindella doubled, as her mother's life essence poured from her dead body, causing Zee's magic to darken into a purple, more royal in color than Tamara could have believed possible. It was also at that moment that Tamara realized what her own mother's death meant for her, and for her own plans. She was about to lose.

"_**NO!**_" she screamed in rage.

It was too late, though, as Zatanna shattered her shields with a flick of her hand, as if swatting a mosquito away without a second thought.

"Now, Basil!" Zatanna roared, her voice magnified by the powerful amount of magic that she had suddenly found herself with.

Her familiar leapt from the hat, dragging the lantern out with him, as he worked his way over to Giovanni, whose magical shackles had been obliterated when Tamara's shields had been destroyed.

Tamara's eyes were wild as she realized that everything was falling down around her. "Two can play at that game," she cried out as she went to focus her power on her father; prepared to take everything from him for one last time.

"No," Zatanna said simply as her right hand spouted a magical bolt that encompassed Tamara and slammed her up against the metal wall. "You will not kill anymore. You are done. I am the Sorceress Supreme! But I want more… MORE!" she cried, relishing in the power that coursed through her body. Thoughts she had never dreamed of, images of possibilities coursing through her. "And you, my big sister, will give it to me!"

Tamara felt her energy being drained quickly. Her body began to wither, her flesh drying up, as Zatanna soaked up all that she was, like a starved sponge that could not get enough.

"Zatanna, stop," Zatara shouted in horror as he watched Zee's body begin to alter and change. Her skin color was becoming the same deep shade of purple as the magic that she was using; she was actually becoming one with the very nucleus of dark magic, itself.

"Shut up, old man!" she roared as her facial features began to melt away, only the vague shape of her nose and mouth now apparent; her eyes gleamed white, however, a sharp contrast to the rest of her body.

"Please…" Tamara whispered as her ragged breath began to rattle inside her lungs.

The laugh that echoed throughout the chamber was vast, ageless. "**You are actually begging?**"

Zatara stood up. "Zatanna, my beautiful daughter, please stop… now… before it's too late."

"** It's already too late! It was too late the moment Tamara came to our world to try and destroy me! The path was set!**"

"No, dear child. Your eyes still glow white. There is still a spark of good inside of you. I can feel it, Zatanna. It's your mother's love. _Your_ mother's love; this is not what she would want. Please, child, don't do this."

For a moment Zatanna swore she could hear her real mother's voice from deep within her soul; it cried out to her, begging her to listen to her father."

Tamara fell to the ground as the magic that had entrapped her was released. Zatanna let out a scream of agony and then she was gone.

"ZATANNA!" Zatara screamed as he ran to one of the windows looking out at the Earth.

He watched as the powerful ball of energy that used to be his daughter, surrounded the planet as the energy blast was released from the station, narrowly missing what looked like some kind of escape pod. It struck the massive ball of magic and Zatara could hear his daughter's cries of pain, but she did not let go.

"**Go, Father! Use the lamp, take Basil and Tamara, and leave… now!"**

"I cannot leave you, my child," he called out, tears streaming down his face.

"**You must, Father. It is what mother would have wanted. I'm doing the right thing, and I will save this planet, but if you die… now… after all of this, then everything that I have gone through will be for naught.**"

The senior magician walked over to Basil and picked him up, along with the lantern. "I have always loved you, my daughter," he sobbed.

He heard one last cry of pain from the pure dark energy, and then he disappeared. Seconds later, the station self-destructed in a brilliant white light that enveloped everything in its path… including the planet and the magic that so desperately tried to save it…

* * *

_**Epilogue**_

Darkness. It was everywhere, then slowly, she could see light. Her eyes fluttered open and she found herself lying on a soft bed, a face looking down at her, with a worried expression.

"Plastic Man?" Zatanna asked in a dazed and confused voice.

He shushed her. "It's alright, you're okay," Eel replied.

"I had the most horrible dream," she began. "And you were there."

"Was I there?" a familiar voice from the other side of the bed asked.

Zatanna turned to see her father sitting there, his tear-stained cheeks red and flushed as she held her hand.

"It… it wasn't a dream," she whispered with joy as she sat up, grabbing him and holding onto her father tightly. She too, began to weep, with the joy of relief.

"No, it wasn't a dream. You made it back. We both did."

"How… I don't know how I got here?" she wondered as she pulled away and looked into his eyes.

He shrugged. "Magic, of course." He grinned at her and she laughed in relief.

She felt something move at the end of the bed and found Basil hopping towards her. She picked him up and nuzzled her face into his fur. She could have sworn he was purring.

"Tamara?" she asked.

"Gone. I grabbed her and took her through the lantern with me, but the sudden explosion sent some kind of rippled effect through the carrier and I lost my grip on her. When I found myself back here, she was nowhere to be seen."

Zatanna thought about it for a moment and pushed it to the back of her mind. That would be something she would deal with on another day. "You're back, Father! You're really back."

Giovanni Zatara grinned at her. "Yes, my beautiful darling. I'm back, and I'm never going to leave you again. Oh my sweet, sweet girl… there really is no place like home."

The two embraced each other again, Basil feeling slightly crushed, and Plastic Man quietly left the room. As he shut the door silently he walked down the hallway.

"_No place like home_? Gag me with a spoon."

_**The End**_


End file.
